In The End
by JadeElements
Summary: SUMMARY: It's just after the ninja war and on his way back to Konoha, Naruto encounters Sasuke. How will their battle play out? Will Sasuke finally come to his senses? Or will they both perish on the battlefield? What does their future hold? SasuNaru-NaruSasu Warnings: Yaoi, Violence, Swearing, M/M, Spoilers, Story follows the Manga
1. Chapter 1: The Encounter

**Well hello everyone. It's been such a long time since I've written anything, so I thought I'd give it another go seeing as how I've improved drastically. Lol**

**Anyhow, this is a sasunaru story. I 3 them so. They've got to be my all time favorite. Oh and they're so freaking CANNON it's not even funny. =P By the way, Naruto in Bijuu mode kicks ass. 'Nuff said. *nods***

**SUMMERY: It's just after the ninja war and on his way back to Konoha, Naruto encounters Sasuke. How will their battle play out? Will Sasuke finally come to his senses? Or will they both perish on the battlefield? SasuNaru Warnings: Violence, Swearing, M/M, Spoilers**

****Story set in Shippuden after the ninja war.** **

****SPOILERS in this story****

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters. Those belong to Kishimoto. I only own my ideas.**

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**In The End**

Chapter 1: The Encounter  
*(Naruto POV)*

I looked out over the battlefield, gazing upon the destruction carving into the land. The area expanded for miles and every inch of earth had been uprooted, scorched, or destroyed. I couldn't help but feel a little guilty at that fact, for I was partially responsible for the destruction of the landscape myself. The place would never be the same. I run a hand through my hair, sighing and closing my eyes for a moment.

"Ma…Naruto," a voice to my left said. I turned to face the owner of said voice. I see Kakashi standing about ten feet away from me looking beaten and ragged. The marks of battle were all over him and he looked as if he might pass out. About four feet to his left stood Gai-Sensei. He looked just as battered as Kakashi did.

"Yeah?" I respond simply.

"Perhaps it's time to head back home. I don't think there's much left for us here," he stated quietly. I nodded in agreement.

"Yeah…let's head home," I said with a small smile upon my lips. It'll be nice to finally be able to relax again, I thought to myself. Home…I'd been away for so long, I don't know if I'd know what to do with myself upon arriving there. There was going to be a lot of cleaning up to do after this war and I'm sure there would be a plethora of paperwork stacked upon Tsunade's desk for her to sign off on. She certainly wasn't going to be happy about that. I chuckled lightly to myself at the image of Tsunade's raging fit about paperwork being annoying and then giving up and passing out drinking.

"Naruto bro! It's time for me to go!" I snap out of my thoughts and turn to see Bee-san smiling at me. His raps were silly at times, but they always made me smile.

"Ah! Bee-san! I didn't see ya there," I grinned, moving my hand to the back of my head and rubbing it. I walked over to him and held out my fist. He grinned real big and bumped my fist with his. I smiled goofily at our gesture and closed the distance giving him a hug before backing away from him again. "We need to stay in touch! Feel free to visit me any time! We can get in some more training!"

"Yeah! Yeah! Training sounds sick! More and more should do the trick!" Bee-san rapped, laughing afterwards. "Take care yo'."

"I'll see you later ok?" I turned from him and looked to Kakashi and Gai. "Are you guys ready to go?"

Kakashi and Gai turned to look at me. "Ah! Naruto! Always so full of youth! I am as ready as I will ever be! Let us head out now!" Gai shouted out. And he was saying I had a lot of 'youth'. The guy was always energized about something.

"Hai, let's get going. We can right up a report about today's transgressions when we get back," Kakashi added to the conversation.

We packed up what we had left after the battle. It wasn't much really. Only a few weapons and scrolls for we hadn't brought much with us. After packing up, we all nodded to each other and set off in the direction of Konoha.

The trip started off slow. We weren't in much of a hurry to get back seeing as there weren't any immediate dangers looming over us. Kakashi and Gai had suffered a number of injuries that were enough to slow their movement, but not enough to cause them to have to stop. Kakashi's eye had suffered a significant amount of damage. It was still bleeding slightly under the hastily wrapped bandage covering it. Gai had a few broken ribs that caused him to wince while breathing and he was certain one of the bones in his fore-arm was broken. I on the other hand, was no worse for wear thanks to a certain nine-tailed demon. Bijuu mode certainly kept my body from being too badly injured. Only a few cuts and scratches adorned my body, though my chakra was fairly low.

As we traveled on, I suddenly felt something I'd totally pushed aside since the battle had started. My stomach grumbled in frustration with me for not filling it. I stopped advancing and perched on a tree branch near a clearing. The other two members of my group stopped too, looking at me curiously.

I grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of my head saying, "I'm hungry."

Both Kakashi and Gai laughed at my antics before Kakashi said, "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to stop to eat. It is just past six." He smiled and jumped down to the ground, choosing to gather up some wood for a fire. Gai followed suit and jumped to the ground, walking to the edge of the clearing. The green clad ninja turned back to us and stated that he was going to go find dinner. We both nodded to him and I turned to sit down by the newly roaring fire Kakashi had started. I stared into it and thoughts of a certain raven haired ninja ghosted through my mind.

"Ma…Naruto?"

I looked up from my reverie, shaking my head to clear my thoughts before saying, "Yes Sensei?"

The silver haired Jounin smiled warmly at me. "I think the time has passed on you calling me sensei. I'd say you've long since surpassed me. A fact in which, I'm proud of."

I smiled a small sincere smile. It meant a lot to hear that coming from him. Kakashi and I had never really been too close, but I'd always cared about him and held a good amount of respect for him. Well, that was after I'd grown out of my childish rebellious stage and realized that I need to protect the people important to me rather than yell brashly and disrespectfully at them.

"I guess it has, huh?" I laughed softly. "Anyway, what is it?"

He looked at me carefully then said, "I was wondering how you were holding up."

This took me a little by surprise. Kakashi didn't usually ask questions like that. Normally, he just offered up advice. Though, after finding out what he did during that battle I suppose he himself had been a little rattled out of character. Hell, if my best friend came back from supposedly being dead I think I'd been tripping out. Kakashi was definitely holding out better than I would have.

"I'm ok, actually. I for once feel at peace with myself. After Kurama (A/N: That's the nine-tail's name in case any of you don't know) and I linked together in Bijuu mode, everything just seemed to click. I no longer felt out of place being a Jinchuuriki. It was like…everything just made sense you know?" I looked at him as he gazed upon me studiously. I think he was looking for any sign that I might not be ok. My answer seemed to have calmed his mind, so he smiled at me and turned to poke the fire with a stick.

"I see. I was hoping for such a result. I'm glad you've found peace. I feel as if we no longer have to worry about the nine-tails so long as you're around."

"Yeah, I guess we don't. It's weird though…because ever since I found out he resided within me, I've hated him for causing so much pain in my life. But now, we're friends. In a way, being what I am is a blessing. I know I never would have been able to come as far as I have without Kurama." I stared into the fire and smiled a small smile.

"YOSH!"

We both looked up in surprise at the sudden noise and I almost jumped. Gai had returned with dinner. I felt a little ashamed for not being aware that he was approaching us, but with my stomach growling at me I didn't care. I wanted to eat.

"I've returned with dinner!" Gai boasted, holding up a long stick that had about ten medium sized fish speared on it.

I grinned real big. "Alright! Dinner!" I went over and set up two sticks to lay the pole with the fish speared on it across. We let them cook over the fire and sat around, talking about the day's events and a number of random things. I kept thinking of how nice it was to relax like this. Things were certainly different now than they had been not but a day ago.

The fish finished cooking and we each took our fair share of them, eating them quickly. A couple of hours had gone by since we'd stopped and I was suddenly feeling sleepy. Yawning, I stretched my arms up over my head and looked at my companions.

"Man I'm beat. What do you guys say to resting here for the night?" I looked at them as they turned to each other before glancing at me.

"Hmm…perhaps we should rest before making the trek back to Konoha. I could certainly use some sleep," Kakashi said lazily.

"Yes, let us re-energize the source of youth!" Gai shouted, smiling real big.

I laughed at his antics while the silver haired ninja just rolled his eyes at his long term rival. In a way, they reminded me of myself and Sasuke. Sasuke… I wonder where he is right now? My expression dulled and became a little sad at the thoughts of my lost best friend. I really hope someday I can drag his butt back to Konoha.

Kakashi raised a perplexed eyebrow at me but decided against saying anything. "I'll have first watch," he stated quietly.

We all agreed and found a spot each around the fire and laid down, getting as comfortable as we could. I suddenly felt the toll today had taken on me and quickly fell into a deep sleep.

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I awoke the next morning feeling invigorated with new found energy. I was happy that today we'd be making our journey back to Konoha and that by evening, I'd be happily back in the home I'd loved for so long. It was going to be wonderful to be back there, surrounded by familiar sights, sounds and smells.

We packed up our area, putting out the last embers of the fire and started to head out towards our destination. Our group ran gracefully on, jumping from tree to tree. The wind felt good flowing through my hair in the early morning air. I didn't used to be an early riser, but here lately it didn't seem so bad to be up in the morning.

A good hour or two went by without a hitch. No one had spoken all morning. I guess everyone just wanted to get home. That's when I felt it though. A chakra pattern to the slight left of us. It was faint and almost unnoticeable, but with my heightened sense from the Kyuubi I could feel it. I stopped dead in my tracks. I knew that chakra pattern. There was no mistaking it's familiarity with me.

The two Jounins with me noticed my abrupt stop and paused, looking at me confused.

I stared off in the direction of the chakra pattern. "It's him," was all I said in response to their inquiring looks. They stood in shock for a moment as understanding hit them at just who I was talking about.

"Naruto…are you sure?" Kakashi questioned. Though, he knew in his heart that I was dead certain about it.

"Yes Kakashi. I know that chakra pattern anywhere. It's him alright and you know what? I'm dragging his ass home, dead or alive. He can pick which one," I stated with a serious tone and a determined look upon my face.

Kakashi just nodded slightly before saying, "Understood. Do you want us to come with you?"

"No. This is my battle. I'm the only person who can bring him back," I said in a matter of fact way. My expression and mind-set was geared for battle now. This would be the final time. Either he comes back, or I kill him in the process. This chase over the years has become ridiculous in my opinion and I felt like he's made a fool of me time and time again that I hadn't been able to accomplish bringing him home. I wasn't about to let that happen again.

"Alright then, we'll leave him to you. But Naruto…be careful…please. Come back alive," the silver-haired man all but whispered. Gai had a concerned look on his face as if he was itching to say something, but he thought better of it and nodded in agreement with Kakashi.

"I promise. Come on…if I could take out Madara, don't you think this should be a piece of cake?" I said as I looked at him, my expression giving off an air of smugness.

Kakashi looked at me once more in concern before turning to Gai simply saying, "Let's go." The two leaf Jounin resumed their journey back towards Konoha. I knew they'd make it there safely.

After they'd disappeared into the trees, I turned back in the direction of the chakra. Inhaling deeply, I steadied myself before bursting forward into a full out run towards it. This is it. It's now or never. Like hell I'm going to let him say no this time. I'll beat that smug look right off his face and drag him back to Konoha if I have to. I picked up the pace as I felt that I was getting closer. Any minute now and I should be right on him.

A moment later, I burst into a clearing. It was an enormous field of tall wheat colored grass. The grass came up to my hips and it swayed gently in the breeze. I looked around and that's when I spotted him. About thirty yards away from me, there he stood. I dashed as quickly as I could until I stopped, only about five feet from him. His back was turned to me.

Panting once I'd reached him, I gasped out, "Sasuke!"

Almost agonizingly slow, he turned around to face me. His face was expressionless, as with him it always was.

"Naruto."

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**And that's it for chapter 1! A little short for my liking, but I think I did an ok job starting off. It's certainly written better than my other stories. lol Anywho…hopefully it won't be too long before I get another chapter up. Leave me a review and tell me what you think. =) Reviews are appreciated. Flames will be ignored.**


	2. Chapter 2: The Fated Meeting

**Alright! Chapter 2, here we go! Hopefully this chapter will be a little longer.**

**I'd like thank those who reviewed positively and also those who have fav'd the story. =) You guys are awesome.**

**I'm kind of just writing this as I go and it hasn't been beta'd so bare with me. If there are any mistakes, I'm sorry. ^^;**

**Anyway…to the story!  
**

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**In The End**

Chapter 2: The Fated Meeting  
*(Naruto POV)*

"Naruto," Sasuke drawled out, his voice void of emotion. It was more of a mere statement than any sort of acknowledgement and held no semblance to a greeting.

I stared at him wide-eyed. I almost couldn't believe that he was standing here not but 5 feet from me. So long…it'd been so long since I'd last seen him. He'd definitely grown some, as had I. He stood before me in a high collared snow white shirt bearing the trademark Uchiha symbol upon its back. His navy blue pants came up over his shirt, tied with that ridiculous purple rope he'd picked up at some point in his time with Orochimaru. His eyes were cold and dark, but they were set to the same onyx color I'd always remembered. Those same eyes haunted my memories. Either he didn't perceive me as a threat, or he was just waiting for the right moment to activate his eyes. His face bore no emotion and it almost seemed as if he was bored with my presence.

I clambered for words to form in my mouth; to say something, but no words would come out. It was as if I was frozen in his gaze, caught like a deer in a bright light. My fists trembled slightly at my sides. If my fingers pressed any harder, I think my nails would cut into my hand. I finally mustered up enough composure to say something.

"Why haven't you come back?" I spat out. _Oh great Naruto. Real smooth. Like the answer to that is going to have changed since our last meeting. _I thought angrily to myself.

He stared at me, devoid of emotion. "Dobe," was all he uttered. It was quiet and I almost didn't hear it. It was almost surreal hearing that name come from his mouth again. His pet name for me had always irritated me in the past but now, it almost seemed like a term of endearment.

I took a tentative step towards him. "You know…you don't have to do this…to be this way. You accomplished your goal. Why can't you come back now? Why have you let your hatred consume you!? I thought you were better than that Teme! I sure as hell thought you were smarter than that! You're supposed to be a god damn genius! But no! You run off like some crazed madman, pursuing god knows what and it just seems so silly now!" My words had started off quiet, but by the time I had finished, I was ranting loudly.

He just stared at me, blinking once as if everything I'd said was insignificant. I'm definitely going to wipe that damn look off his face. He thinks he's so much better than everyone else. Well his arrogance will be his downfall today.

"DAMN IT! I've had enough of this! It's like talking to a brick wall!" I growled out in anger, raising my fists level with my hips.

He scoffed, a small devious grin playing upon his lips. "Tch…you're one to talk Dobe."

That's it…I'm going to break every bone in his body and beat him into a bloody pulp before dragging him by his hair back to Konoha. He needed some god damn sense knocked into him. I should have realized long ago that my words would never reach him. I flew forward in a sudden burst, closing the gap in between us quickly. My fist was raised up, poised for attack. If it'd been anybody else, it would have connected with their face. But this was Sasuke and he'd always been one step ahead of me. He fluidly dodged my punch before throwing one of his own. Granted, Sasuke was quick but the years I'd trained had made me quick too. I veered off to the left of him and his fist hit only air.

He stopped and looked over at me, bringing himself up to stand straight again. It seemed like a small smile threatened to grace his lips. I think he was enjoying this. The thought only frustrated me more. Though I suppose of all the people Sasuke had ever fought, I was the only one who could rival him. The only one who was ever a challenge for him. Perhaps that's why he'd deemed me as his rival. No one else ever came close to him. That's why I knew this was my fight and no one else's. In the end, it had to be me.

"I see that this is going to take more effort," he said slowly, his eyes flashing to that of the Mangekyou Sharingan.

He was challenging me, I know it. _Alright then, challenge accepted_. I suddenly lost my earlier frustration to the lure of a challenge. A spark of our old rivalry seemed to reignite between us. I grinned my trademark grin and flared up my chakra going into Bijuu mode. I looked at him with a smug look on my face, "You're not the only one who's improved."

Kurama seemed to stir restlessly inside me. I think the thought of extinguishing an Uchiha excited his bloodlust. I heard his low snarl vibrate through my mind in anticipation of the battle. Sasuke seemed taken aback for an infinitesimal amount of time, his expression only breaking enough for someone who knew him like I do to notice. It was fleeting and was then replaced with a haughty smirk while he unsheathed his sword before raising it up. Rays of sunlight danced off of the cold steel as he turned himself into a battle ready stance.

"Come," was all he said.

Needing no further invitation, I sprung into action. I disappeared from sight and reappeared behind him landing a hard punch into the back of his head causing him to stagger forward. He was shocked, but only for a moment. He regained his composure and turned to face me, throwing his own punch. A flare of chakra sprouted up from behind me, catching his punch and snaking around his wrist gripping him and then launching him off towards the trees.

The raven haired ninja smashed into the trees some 50 yards away a cloud of dirt and leaves rising up in the wake of his impact.

"I see you have improved. I'd be impressed if it weren't you I was fighting," he said smirking at me, trying to goad me into thinking irrationally. That would have worked years ago, but I've grown up a lot since then.

I smirked at him. "Prod all you want Sasuke. I'm not the irrational loud mouth ninja I used to be." His expression seemed to falter for a second before his hands flew into a multitude of signs.

"Susanoo!" As his hand signs finished, a giant skeletal creature covered in a purple chakra aura sprung up behind Sasuke. Its giant hand came crashing down over where I was standing. Lucky for me, I was quicker than it. I bounded out of the way as its force caused it to gouge into the earth bellow it, leaving a skeletal hand print in the ground. The surrounding area lit up in a fire and burned up all the grass in the immediate vicinity. Sasuke growled in frustration.

"It's going to take more than that to get rid of me Sasuke!" I yelled at him from across the field. His eyes flared up in hatred as he commanded Susanoo to launch both arms at me as he traveled forward, the giant creature landing punch after punch into the ground beneath it. Time and time again he missed me. I decided to attack and in a burst of chakra, my nine tails whipped around to grab at Sasuke.

Quickly seeing this, he started jumping back away from them, having Susanoo bat them away when it could. The gap between us was closing and soon enough, my chakra enveloped him grasping a firm hold on him. I sent out a massive wave, the force of it so great it caused Susanoo to disperse. Sasuke stayed pinned within my chakra and I closed the distance between us. I stopped when I was only about a foot away from Sasuke.

"Are you still so confident that you can win Sasuke? Still so sure that you're better than me?" I growled out, my face contorted into a mixture of hate and cockiness. I knew I had to win this and the only way to do so was to beat it into his head.

He glared at me before sending out a burst of his own chakra. It was enough to allow him to worm his way free. He launched himself at me, tackling me and we both fell down to the ground. He was straddling my hips and he had his hands fisted in my shirt, raising me up a little. He had this angry deranged look on his face.

"WHY!" he screamed. "Why do you always have to chase me?! I can't get away from you! Do you know how frustrating that is?! I tried to kill you and you still chase after me! What is it going to take to get you to hate me!? I tried to sever the bond we had and yet it wasn't enough!" He shook me a little as he spoke.

I looked up at him, my expression calm and a smile tugged at the corner of my mouth. "I can never hate you Sasuke. It wouldn't matter what you did. You and I are intertwined you know? I understand you. This path of hatred and revenge that you've stupidly set yourself on is ludicrous."

His expression flared up and he head-butted me. My head snapped backwards and lolled a bit before I shook it slightly, regaining my composure. "I don't give a damn what you think! I've only ever wanted power! Why is that not clear to you?! Nothing else matters but power. I got tired of being helpless all the time. Nothing was going to stand in the way of my goal!"

"Yeah yeah…your goal for revenge. But you know what? That's done with now. Are you really going to destroy what Itachi tried to preserve?" This seemed to strike a nerve in Sasuke because before I knew what hit me, his fist connected with my face.

"What the hell do you know about Itachi?!" the raven spat in my face as he screamed in rage at me.

I winced turning my head back to him. "I knew enough about him to know that he wouldn't want his little brother living like this. Something he said to me once clued me in on that. He only wanted you to be happy and to protect you from the path of revenge that you set yourself upon. But turns out his efforts were in vain." _Ok, now I've successfully pissed him off_. He swiftly threw three more punches onto my face. I was beginning to wonder why I wasn't blocking them.

"Shut up! I hate that damn village! They made Itachi what he was! I'll never go back there!" With this, he drew his sword back out and made to slit my throat with it. _Ok, time to get serious again_. Before his sword could reach me, I bucked up knocking him off balance before grabbing his shoulders and throwing him roughly to the left of me. I reversed our positions and he didn't seem too happy about that.

"It's going to take more than that to kill me Teme," I ground out as my fist connected with his jaw, snapping his head to the side. In turn, he threw a punch up at me. It clipped my chin knocking me backwards off of him. He jumped up and put some distance in between us before sparking up a jutsu I'd never seen him use before. A roaring phoenix came to life in the flames sprouting from his mouth and it came barreling towards me, the heat so intense that if it weren't for Kurama's chakra I'd certainly be burned to a crisp.

As quickly as the attack came, a shield of chakra encased me as the attack hit and then fizzled out around me. I came rapidly out of the smoke and fire and saw a look of mild surprise on his face. I guess he hadn't expected me to be unscathed. We locked ourselves into a battle of fists, dancing across the field in a deadly ballet of moves. My chakra reached out again to grab him but he was wiser this time and quickly avoided it. I growled; the sound almost feral as I followed him across the field.

"Damn it Sasuke! This could all end if you'd just come to your senses! Don't you want to be happy!?" I yelled after him. My chakra tail managed to connect with him, sending him tumbling along the ground. I was on top of him again before he had a chance to recover. This time, I straddled him, pinning his legs in between mine and pinning his wrist to the ground with my hands to immobilize his movement. "What is it going to take to get through to you?"

He looked up at me, an irritated expression on his face. "You still haven't answered MY question Naruto. Why can't you let me go? Why haven't you given up on me?" Sasuke stared up at me, his eyes questioning mine, boring into my very being looking for an answer in them.

My expression softened as I looked down at him. "Sasuke…you were…you were all I really had. The only thing I had that was even close to having a family. I thought so many times that being around you must have been what it was like to have a brother…"

He looked up at me, his brow furrowing slightly trying to understand my words. "You thought of me as…a brother?" It seemed as if he couldn't seem to believe that I had thought of him that way.

"Yes moron…geez…and I'm supposed to be the dense one." He growled at me. "But you've gotta realize by now that I just don't give up on people. Sasuke…you mean a lot to me. I want you back in my life again. To be honest, I don't know really understand it myself. I'm not sure why I have such a strong attachment to you. All I know is that you run deep within me and I don't feel whole without you around…"

I saw something in Sasuke's eyes as he looked up at me. A feeling that ran deep within him that I don't think he himself understood. Of course I was just as lost as he was. I realized something then. Only I could get a rise out of Sasuke. It'd always been that way. I seemed to be the only one he spared more than two or three words to, even if most of the time it was just to insult me. Somehow, bits of his emotions seeped through his icy exterior when he was around me. I wondered what that was about. Maybe it meant he was still human in there and that he never truly could sever his bond with me.

"Dobe…don't go around saying stuff like that," he albeit whispered. His face wore an expression that showed he was trying to work through what I'd said in his head and that he was trying to figure out how he felt about it.

I leaned down and rested my forehead on his, staring into his eyes. "I just feel close to you. I don't know why. Plus, you're never going to be able to get rid of me…baka…" I chuckled lightly at the last part of my statement.

Sasuke seemed a little uncomfortable at our closeness, but he made no effort to move. "I see…you know…sometimes…I feel like you're a parasite that's burrowed itself deep down and won't let go. At times, I find that I don't particularly mind that you're there. It's only when my goals are jeopardized that it becomes an annoyance."

I stared at Sasuke in confusion. Did he really just confess some sort of feelings about me but at the same time insult me? Geez…only Sasuke could accomplish that. The man was a real piece of work.

"I just can't leave you alone Teme. I'll chase you to the ends of the earth if I have to. You just mean that much to me."

"Dobe," was the only thing that escaped his lips. "But nothing has changed…I refuse to go back. You've given me no good reason to." With this he started struggling under my grip, bucking around wildly and damn near throwing me off. He managed to get one hand free as I was forced to brace myself. He grabbed at my throat with his free hand and we end up wrestling around on the ground each fighting for dominance over the other.

I was beginning to wonder why it was always like this with us. There were always heated conversations, flying punches and numerous justus thrown between us. We could be fighting one minute and talking the next and then we'd revert back to trying to kill each other before yet again, end up talking. It was a strange game we seemed to play. I guess that was just the nature of our relationship. It took more than words to get our points across. With anyone else, Sasuke would have ended the fight as quickly as he could, but he never seemed to be able to do that with me. It gave me a small hope that I might actually be able to change his mind. I really hoped I could.

As we wrestled around, we became covered in dirt, sweat, and grass. Both of our sets of clothes had rips in them and our hair was a mess. Neither of us seemed to care about using justus anymore and I'd long since dropped out of Bijuu mode as Sasuke had also relinquished his Sharingan.

"Damn it Sasuke!" Getting fed up and tired, I forcefully grabbed Sasuke and pinned him again. Only this time, I seemed to be straddling him in a more provocative position. This fact wasn't lost to him. There was a slight tint of pink daring to come up on his face. I looked down on him and just now noticed his looks. I guess I hadn't got a really good look at Sasuke since he'd left. He was damn near beautiful. His pale porcelain skin was a stark contrast to his black hair and eyes. His body was cut and smooth and definitely considered desirable to many. I guess I could kind of see why he had so many women pining after him. Not that any of them would be able to get close to him. Only I could get close to him like this. Not that I'd want anyone else to try. That's when it hit me like a ton of bricks in the face. All those years of chasing him… of feeling possessive of him, and never wanting to give up on him? I loved the bastard. I almost couldn't believe it. I guess fate had a way of twisting things, but it made sense. It was the only explanation for why I just couldn't let him go. I wouldn't have fought like this for anyone else. Hell…have I loved him all along?

"Oy…Dobe…why are you staring at me like that?" He was looking up at me quizzically.

"Why? Ah hell…fuck it!" I blurted out in a frustrated manner before crashing my lips down over his. He gasped out in shock and was frozen in place. I couldn't help but remember the time we first kissed on accident. It seems Sasuke was always my first in everything. My first kiss, my first friend, my first best friend, my first rival and last but not least…my first love. Though I had a funny feeling he'd also be my last.

I pulled away and stayed hovering only a few inches above his face. His cheeks were stained with a light pink hue and his eyes were wide. There was something swimming in those eyes.

"N-Naruto…w-what the hell was that?!" he managed to choke out. Apparently I had more affect on the ice-queen than I thought. I chuckled to myself in my head at that silly nickname for him. I returned my attention to him

"I don't know. It just felt like it was the right thing to do," I stated in a matter of fact way.

"Baka…only you could explain something like that that way…" His expression seemed to soften as he looked at me. "I should kill you, you know…" The words had no threat behind them. It was almost as if he was accepting my feelings and in some weir d strange Sasuke-way, returning them.

"Pssh…as if you could kill me," I said in mirth a grin adorning my face.

He growled at me. "I could, but it seems fate doesn't want me to because every time I try…I seem to fail miserably."

I was a little taken aback at his statement. He's right. He has tried. Why would today be any different? Of course he was going to try to kill me or run if I let him go. I guess I was diluting myself into thinking there might be a chance he'd come back with me. "You're going to run if I let you go aren't you?" It wasn't really a question.

He stared at me for a moment before saying, "It's highly likely. I also might try to kill you again."

"I don't want you to go and I'm not letting you get away this time Sasuke. I mean it." My expression turned back to that of a serious one. Like hell I was going to let him get away again. He's escaped me far too many times now.

"You're a fool Naruto. I can't go back there. I'm a missing-nin. They hate me. I'll more than likely be thrown in prison. Is that what you want? Me locked up?" he spat out a look of irritation on his face.

"No, I don't want you in prison. I'm sure Obaa-chan could pull some strings and I'll stand up in your defense. There's gotta be a way to play to the council's old ways." I stared determinedly at him.

Suddenly, a fist connected with my face. I then realized that somewhere in our conversation, my grip on his wrists had slackened. Another fist crashed into my face, this one sending me flying off of him.

"I won't go back there Naruto. You're going to have to either knock me out or kill me. I won't go willingly." His voice was icy and devoid of any emotion that it'd held a few moments ago. He glared at me and turned to run. Damn him.

I got up and ran after him. We were running at break-neck speed and we passed into the forest leaving the battle-scarred field behind. Jumping from tree to tree he kept picking up speed which I matched. I was trying to gain on him but every time I got close, he'd burst into a quicker speed that I didn't think was even possible. Occasionally he'd turn back and throw a jutsu at me which I'd dodge, the action slowing me down momentarily. I guess he reached his limit though because the last time I started to catch up, he didn't seem to be able to go any faster.

I smirked to myself. _Guess you're not faster than me anymore Teme_. I managed to tackle him from behind. We both came crashing down from the tree limbs landing hard on the ground bellow. He cursed at me under his breath and began swinging away at me. I think he may have snapped a little because his movements weren't as calculated as they usually were. I took this temporary lack of clarity as my opportunity to act. I phased out from in front of him and appeared behind him. I had managed to grab his sword from him in the confusion.

"Not this time…" and I jutted the hilt of his sword into the back of his neck hard. He fell limp to the ground, knocked out cold from my blow. I guess I was just going to have to drag his ass back to Konoha, but at least this time…I actually could.

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**Woot! There's another chapter. I hope you guys like it. Leave me a review of what you think. =) Again, flamers will be ignored.**


	3. Chapter 3: Prison and HomeComing

**Here we go! Another chapter up. I'm trying not to fall into my old habit of making short chapters. This story is already longer than any of my other completed stories, so I think I'm on the right track. Heh. Anyhow, hope you enjoy it!**

**A big thanks to my reviewers and followers! You guys are my fuel to keep this thing going!**

**To my Reviewers:**

**SecondStarToTheRight18: Thank you so much.=D I'm glad that I can accomplish that. It did make sense to me. Hopefully I'll have another chapter up by tonight or possibly tomorrow morning. Depends on how things go. Thanks for reading. =)**

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**On to the story!**

* * *

**In The End**

Chapter 3: Prison and Home-coming  
*(Sasuke POV)*

I awoke to the sound of water dripping slowly onto stone flooring. Letting out a groan, I blinked my eyes open trying to regain some focus. Once my vision had cleared from my sleep induced daze, I was able to take in my surroundings. It was fairly dark and only a few slivers of light seeped into the room through what I could make out to be bars. _Prison…great_. I guess the Dobe had accomplished dragging me back. It must have been early in the morning because the lights that would be on during normal daytime hours were all shut off. Only a few lights here and there to help aid walking in the dark were illuminated.

I sat up wincing at the motion, my head swimming and throbbing. I was still sore from my fight with that dim-witted blonde. My fingers ghosted across my lips remembering the rough kiss he'd given me. Then I growled in frustration, dropping my hand back down and closing my eyes. Why the hell did he always have to be so damn confusing? One minute, he's trying to kill me and the next, he kisses me. I'll never understand the piece of work that is Naruto. Though I can't say that a part of me didn't enjoy the contact; not that I'll ever let him know that. I hate what he does to me. I can never just kill him like I would anyone else. I tried to wrack my brain for the answer as to why, but nothing came to mind.

It was then that I noticed the chakra seals on my wrists and chest. Someone had bound my chakra so that I could only use enough to sustain living. Who ever had done this was very skilled. They were seals I didn't recognize.

I sighed, deciding to wait until someone came to greet me. I figured it'd only be a matter of time before he came clambering in here yelling at me about something. The loudmouth never could leave me alone for long.

A few hours passed by and the normal lights came on. It must be normal operating hours now. I was sitting crossed legged on the bed, my hands folded in my lap waiting for the inevitable arrival of the obnoxious orange-clad ninja.

That's when I heard it; the sound of footsteps lightly tapping the ground as they moved towards the direction of my cell. They were quiet, steady steps. Must not be Naruto then. A figure appeared on the other side of the bars as they came around the corner. He looked familiar but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. He grinned at me and it did nothing but irritate me. His smile almost seemed forced.

"Ah, so he did bring you back. I had to see it for myself," the dark haired ninja spoke quietly.

I merely glared at him in response.

"Hmm…the strong silent type then. You know, I don't see what Naruto-Kun sees in you. All I see is a washed up ninja with extreme emotional issues," he said smiling in an almost fox-like way, an air of smugness about him.

"Fuck off," I growled out. I had no patience for this moron. He was really beginning to irritate me. There was just something off about him.

"I feel that you don't remember me. Let me help refresh your memory. I was there when we found you in Orochimaru's lair. My name is Sai," he said, smiling his fake, forced smile again.

Ah, I knew I'd seen him somewhere. He was just as annoying then and he is now. "You're the one that showed up in my room," I retorted with no emotion in my voice.

"Yes, that was me. I've changed a bit since then. Naruto must be very happy to have you back," the annoying ninja stated simply.

"Hn." I wasn't about to continue a conversation with this fool, especially not one about the Dobe.

Just then, I heard loud frantic footsteps barreling down the hall towards us. _Oh great, another visitor_. Though the footfall didn't sound like Naruto's. It was lighter, most likely female. _Sakura_.

She came careening around the corner and halted to a stop in front of my cell. I spared her no expression and said nothing upon her arrival.

"Sasuke-Kun! It really is true! You're back!" she rasped out in between breaths. Her breathing was shallow from running. "Oh my…I'm…I'm so glad you're back."

"Ah! Sakura-Chan! It's always a pleasure to see your vibrant face," Sai greeted her. His small smile almost seemed sincere in looking at her. I wondered if he cared for her, but the thought was fleeting and meaningless, gone as quickly as it came.

"Sasuke-Kun…I'm just…so glad that you're back. I almost didn't believe it. I wish they hadn't locked you up though…" the pink haired Kunoichi whispered out.

I continued to stare at her with no acknowledgement. I'd never cared for Sakura. She usually just got in the way during our missions. There's a chance she could have changed over the years, but the way she acted towards me seemed to be the same. For that reason, I chose to keep her on my list of people to avoid.

"Sasuke…" Her face saddened and she appeared crestfallen that I'd chose not to acknowledge her presence. Maybe this time around she'd get the hint.

"Perhaps we should go Sakura-Chan," Sai said, drawing her attention to him. She looked at him and then back to me. Her expression was sad and she seemed like she didn't wish to leave. Then she turned back to Sai, I suppose realizing that she wasn't going to get much out of me and spoke softly to him. "Yeah…yeah I guess we should go." She turned to glance at me once more. "Goodbye Sasuke-Kun. I'll visit you again sometime. It was good seeing you again."

With that, they left and I was grateful. I preferred silence anyway. It didn't last long though before I heard yet another set of footsteps heading in my direction. This time, I knew the pattern. The steps were fast and heavy, but not hurried. This person knew I wasn't going anywhere, but wanted to get to me in a decent amount of time. Finally, he'd showed up. I found myself wondering why it seemed like I was actually looking forward to him coming, to seeing him. It didn't make sense to me, so I brushed the thoughts away.

He turned the corner stopping a few inches from the cold steel bars, giving me a once over before he chose to speak.

"Sasuke." Naruto looked at me, his expression softening a little. I couldn't help but feel my heart clench a little at hearing him say my name like that, combined with the look on his face. I flushed the thoughts out of my head.

"Naruto. I see you've managed to get me locked up. I told you this is what would happen," I voiced, devoid of emotion.

"Oh shut up Teme. It could be worse. You could be dead. The council had considered execution," he proclaimed in a matter of fact tone.

"Tch…you should have just let them kill me then. Dobe." I stared at him blankly. He didn't seem to like my answer though. His fists banged against the bars.

"Listen Sasuke…you're not going to die here. Like hell I'm going to let that happen after all the trouble I went through to get you back. You shouldn't talk so carelessly about your life like that," he albeit growled out. The expression he wore confused me. It was one I hadn't seen on his face before. Almost like a mixture of pity and sadness. He also seemed to be hurt on a level I didn't understand at the thought of my life ending.

"So what's supposed to happen now? You seem to think you have everything figured out, so what's my fate here in this pathetic little village?" I spoke out vehemently. The thought of rotting away to die in this cell wasn't very appealing to me. What made it even worse was that the cell happened to be in the very place I despised with all that I was.

"The council hasn't reached a verdict yet. They're not going to kill you, but they're not sure they want to keep you lock up in a cell either. They're afraid of you. I threw in the fact that you killed off several Akatsuki members and Orochimaru. I hope that plays in your favor. It seemed to cause them to consider a lighter sentence at least," he drawled out, his forehead now resting on the bars and his hands gripping them.

I took in the information in silently, glancing off to the side of my bed somewhere. So the council wasn't going to kill me after all. I thought for sure it would have been the death sentence if I was ever drug back here. Though I had a funny feeling Naruto had a lot to do with that.

"I see. What's being considered then?" My gaze returned to him and he seemed to have some sort of determination in his eyes.

"I threw the idea out there…of you living with me instead of being stuck in this cell. I'm the only one who could stop you anyway, should you choose to deflect again or go on some homicidal rampage. Of course, I'm sure the chakra seals will remain on you until they no longer deem you a threat," he said almost grinning.

"What?!" I ground out. "You want me to live with you? It's bad enough that I'm stuck in this god forsaken village but now you have the unmitigated gall to think that I'd want to live with you? You must have hit your head or something. Why would I want to live with you of all people?" My words seemed to cut him deep, though I wasn't too sure why. It wasn't like my behavior towards him was unusual. So why was there hurt in his wide cerulean orbs?

"Well if you remember Teme…you were the one who got hit in the head…" he chuckled a little darkly, glaring at me while doing so. A noise I found didn't suit Naruto. It was just unnatural coming from him.

"Baka. As if that could be helped. I didn't ask to be brought back here. You're the idiot who thought it'd be a good idea." I glared at him. There was that hurt again. I couldn't help but feel guilty for some reason. Why did my emotions always interject into my encounters with Naruto? Why couldn't I just be as emotionless as I am with everyone else? I tried to wrack my brain for an answer, but yet again I came up with nothing.

"It doesn't matter anymore Sasuke. What's done is done. You're here now, so you're just going to have to get over your prissy little self and deal with it. Do you want to rot in this cell or would you rather live with me? Those are really your only two options," the blond ninja said, a slight bit of irritation laced in his voice.

I pondered the thought for a moment. He was right, I begrudgingly admitted to myself. I wasn't used to this new Naruto. He actually made sense instead of just spouting off nonsense like he did when I knew him before. I guess he'd grown up some.

"Alright," I whispered. It was bad enough I was agreeing to it, but I didn't want to be loud enough for anyone else to hear.

"What was that?" he questioned, looking at me expectantly. Bastard…I know he heard me with his damned heightened senses. He just wanted me to repeat it.

"I said alright!" I yelled out. I huffed indignantly, turning my head to the side.

"Awesome!" he exclaimed, a broad grin plastered on his face. He laughed whole-heartedly. "You won't regret it Teme. I'll go inform Tsunade Baa-Chan right now!"

I looked at him a little surprised at his eagerness to have me living with him. At this point though, nothing should surprise me about Naruto. He was Konoha's number one most unpredictable ninja. I'm sure if there were ways to defy the natural laws of nature, he'd be able to do it. He just had that way about him.

"Whatever Dobe. Just go away now so I can have some peace and quiet," I grumbled out.

Naruto just laughed before he turned around to head out. "I'll see you later Sasuke. Try not to shrivel up and die before I come back."And then he was gone, out of my sight and his footsteps fading away down the hall.

What the hell was I thinking? I had just seriously agreed to living with Naruto. NARUTO of all people. Had I gone crazy? Come to think of it, most people would probably say I was already there, but screw them. What did they know anyway?

* * *

Two days had passed since Naruto had been down to see me. I was beginning to wonder if he was coming back at all. I found myself anticipating his arrival again. Growling to myself, I decided I really needed to figure out why that was. I had taken to doing basic physical exercises to keep my mind busy and my body toned. I did my usual rep of crunches, sit-ups, push-ups and squats to stay busy.

Now, I was perched back on the bed, my eyes closed in meditation. I needed to keep my mind sharp after all. Evening was approaching and I thought that another day would go by without any visitors. I was sadly mistaken.

The sound of almost weightless footsteps approached my cell. I didn't need to open my eyes to know who it was.

"Kakashi."

"Ma…I see I need no introduction. I wish our meeting was on happier terms," he lazily drawled out.

At his words, I opened my eyes slowly. My expression was that of one that held no interest in conversation. Though Kakashi knew me fairly well, so I was sure whatever he had to say would be straight to the point and he'd be gone as quick as he came.

"What is it you want?" My voice cut through the silence, a cold tone to it.

"I wanted to say, that I'm glad you're back for one. The other thing I came to say, is that you should be careful not to hurt Naruto. He's putting his neck out on the line to keep you from being killed and to get you out of here. You need to understand that he's making a sacrifice for you. If you mess things up, the council is going to hold him responsible." The silver haired man's tone was almost as icy as mine and it held every tone of seriousness possible. He meant every word and in a way, it was a threat.

"I didn't ask him to do that for me," I stated simply.

"Regardless, he is doing it Sasuke. That's just the type of person he is. I only hope that your time with him brings you back into the world of the living." The last part of Kakashi's message was almost cryptic. He always had a way of making things sound philosophical and making you think about what you were doing.

"I'll do as I see fit Kakashi. Now leave."

"Suit yourself Sasuke. But I think you'll find that his nature is hard to resist." With this, he waved at me and disappeared off down the hall.

I guess he felt the need to be my mentor to the end, even if I'd long since surpassed him. Though of all people, Kakashi was probably the one who irritated me the least. In some weird sort of way, he usually ended up being right but I wasn't about to openly take his advice.

Not long after the annoying Jounin had left, I heard a sound I'd come to recognize immediately. Naruto was coming down the hall. I sat on the bed, waiting for him to round the corner. As he did, I could see the vibrant expression on his face. His trademark grin was in place. I took this as it meant good news and that I was to be released to his custody. Well, it was good news for him. I didn't particularly see it as such.

"Sasuke! Sasuke! They approved! It took some badgering and a lot of convincing, but they finally agreed to let you stay with me. You have to keep your chakra seals on though, but at least you get to be free." He smiled happily at me. I really don't get him…he should hate me, but he doesn't. How can he sit there and smile at me like that after everything I've done. Hell, after everything I've done to HIM alone he should despise my very existence. But this was Naruto and I guess he always did what was unexpected.

"Hn. So…does that mean we're leaving now?" I questioned in an uncaring manner.

"Yep!" he proclaimed. It was then that I noticed the guard to his left. He turned his back to me and did a few hand signs to dispel some chakra barriers on the cell before taking out a set of keys to unlock the cell door. _Smart_. I thought to myself. At least he wasn't at total idiot and didn't let me see the set of hand signs. He fumbled a moment with the keys before unlocking the cell door and opening it. I sat still for a moment, contemplating where this path was going to take me.

"Hurry up already Teme! I haven't got all day ya' know," he said in mock irritation.

"Hn." Swinging my legs over the left side of the bed, I moved to get up and walked to the cell door. Naruto grinned again and started walking. I followed him out of the cell and down the hall. This was certainly going to be an interesting experience. The thought of just killing myself off in sheer frustration of living in close quarters with Naruto flashed through my mind. It seemed a likely outcome to me.

We walked in silence most of the way back to his apartment. I followed slightly behind him to his left. As we passed through a decently populated part of town, I started receiving stares of shock and fear. It seems most of the village wasn't really too happy to see me, though no one dared to say anything.

Stopping suddenly, he turned and looked at me. "I'm hungry. How about you Teme?"

I stared blankly at him before I felt a slight trebling in my stomach. "Yes."

"Alright! Let's get something to eat then!" he proclaimed and we walked a few more yards before ducking into a small booth.

"One bowel of miso ramen!" Naruto shouted out. The salesman smiled at him and then looked to me. His smile faltered for a moment as he realized who I was.

"And you sir?" he said almost cautiously.

"Three onigiri and a bowel of curry," I replied in a bored tone.

"Coming right up!" he said before turning to prepare our meals. Moments later, he set our respective dishes down in front of us and we began eating in silence.

Naruto ordered three more bowels of ramen before he was done. I'd long since finished my meal. He paid our bill and we left the small stand heading back towards his home.

"Ahh! That was good. I'm full now," he said, smiling happily and rubbing his stomach. The simplest things seemed to bring joy to Naruto. He really was like a child sometimes.

Arriving at his apartment moments later, he stuck his hand into his pocket searching for his keys. I looked at the revolting orange pants he was wearing and made a mental note to myself to shred all of his orange clothing. It really was an assault to one's eyes.

"Aha! Finally!" he yelled out, holding his keys up. Placing one key in the door, I heard the faint 'click' as the door unlocked. He turned the knob and opened the door stepping inside. I followed suit, closing the door behind me. We both took off our shoes at the door. His apartment was a mess. Ok…mess was an understatement. It looked like a hurricane had blown through it. It was beyond me to understand how someone could live like this.

"Heh…sorry for the mess. I haven't been around much lately. I guess it just kind of piled up on me there…" the blonde said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. "Anyway, make yourself at home. I'm going to go change." With that, he threw his keys on a table near the door and padded off down the hall.

I was left standing in his living room with no idea what to do with myself. This was foreign territory for me. I'd always lived alone since my family died and I was too young to really remember much. I looked over to the couch that was covered in an array of things. Mumbling to myself about Naruto being a slob, I walked over to it and cleaned it off before sitting down. I figured I'd just wait until Naruto came back out to do anything.

About fifteen minutes later, he came back out into the living room a white towel draped over his head. I guess he'd decided to take a shower. He was wearing only a pair of black sweatpants that hung loosely and dangerously low on his hips. My eyes raked over his body as I noticed just how toned and attractive he was. He was muscular, but not too much. It was like the perfect amount of muscle. His tan skin still slightly wet from his shower glistened in the dim light of the room. When had he gotten so damn desirable? Hell…when had I started thinking he was desirable? I was questioning my sanity a lot lately.

"Sasuke! Yoohoo! Earth to Sasuke!" I snapped out of my thoughts and looked at him. He was standing a foot in front of me now, waving his hand in front of my face. "You seemed kind of lost in oblivion there for a moment," he said, a bit of concern in his tone.

"I'm fine. You should really clean up this place. I knew you were a slob, but I didn't think you were this bad." I gestured to his entire apartment with a look of disgust on my face.

"Shut up asshole! Nobody asked you!" he growled out while glaring daggers at me. I smirked. I think I'd just found my new favorite pass-time; irritating Naruto. Not that it was really hard to do.

"Oh really? It sure seemed like this place let out a cry for help when I walked in the door." My smirk darkened in a mischievous manner and he looked like he was about to snap.

"Fuck you Sasuke!" I felt a fist connect with my jaw and it sent me tumbling off the couch. I growled in frustration and looked up at him. He was standing over me. "TEME! I save your ass from the council and what do you do to show me thanks? You insult my home and do nothing but piss me off! Why are you such and asshole all the damn time! Geez!" The blonde threw his hands up in the air and walked away from me. _Oh this isn't over_.

I stood up silently and launched myself at his retreating back. We crashed to the floor of his apartment and tumbled a few feet. Somehow in the scuffle he'd ended up on top of me, his hard body pressed to mine and he was in between my legs. I almost blushed at our position. Almost.

He started down at me glaring."What the hell Sasuke?!"

"Don't look at me like that. You started it!" _Oh great, real way to sound mature there_. I sounded like a four year old who just got picked on by his older brother.

"I did not! You started it with your damn 'I'm better than everyone else' attitude!" Ok, so he wasn't sounding much more mature than me, but that wasn't unusual for him.

"Dobe! What'd you expect me to do?! Come in and be all happy go lucky about having to live here with my chakra bound!?" I spat up at him. He moved his arm to lift himself up to get a better look at me and his lower half shifted slightly between my legs. A bolt of electricity flew up my spine at the feeling. I let out an almost unnoticeable gasp. _What the hell was that_?

Noticing my small gasp, he seemed to realize what had happened. A sly grin crept its way on to his face. I really wasn't liking that look.

"Hmm…did you like that?" He rolled his hips into mine and my eyes shot wide open as the feeling shot through me again, only this time it was with more force. I stared at him incredulously wondering what the hell he was doing. I couldn't possibly be feeling any sort of sexual reaction from Naruto. We were both male. The idea seemed ludicrous to me. But he did it again and that was the only explanation for what was going on. And what was worse…was that he seemed to be enjoying doing this to me. I swiftly threw him off of me.

"What the hell Naruto!" I screamed at him. I was raised up on my elbows, still partially lying down. He was in a sitting position, glaring childishly at me from where I'd tossed him.

"What? I was just having a little fun. You seemed to enjoy it…" He shrugged and looked at me grinning again.

"I DID NOT! There's something seriously wrong with your brain Dobe!" I'm sure I looked like a bristled cat as I yelled at him. There was a slight tinge of pink fluttering across the bridge of my nose too. How the hell does he get me so riled up? I'm supposed to be calm and collected damn it!

"Where do you want to sleep?" he said, breaking me from my thoughts.

"Huh?" I replied stupidly, blinking a few times. Words seemed to be failing me at the moment.

"Where do you want to sleep baka? It's not that hard of a question," he answered in a slightly annoyed tone. Apparently he was choosing to ignore my previous statement about his mental health. "You can sleep in my bed with me if you want. It should be big enough for the two of us."

"Like hell I'm sleeping next to you after what you just pulled!" I yelled out. How could he suggest something like that?

"Suit yourself," he said shrugging. "It gets cold in here at night and I don't have any extra blankets. So if you sleep out here on the couch, you're probably going to get cold. I thought you might want to be warm for once." It was almost as if he was implying he wanted me in his bed.

"I'll live." I snarled out.

He paused for a moment before getting up and walking out of the room towards his bedroom. "You know where I am if you change your mind," he almost sung out as he shut the door behind him after walking into his room.

I sat there ruffled on the floor trying to figure out what the hell had just happened. I wasn't expecting any of that. Why the hell was he so good at getting under my skin? It was annoying and infuriating. I decided to get up and sprawled myself on the couch. Maybe sleep will help me regain my composure because I sure as hell had lost it tonight. I closed my eyes in an attempt to sleep. As I lay there, I couldn't help but notice the temperature. Naruto was right; it did get cold in here. Normally this wouldn't have bothered me. I could just block out the fact that it was cold and sleep anyway. It's what I'd done in the prison cell. For some reason though, there was some sort of allure to sleeping next to Naruto's warm body. That's it…I definitely have lost my mind.

For the next couple of hours, I tossed and turned trying to get to sleep. I was so restless that it was ridiculous. I glanced up at a clock on the living room wall. It read 1:14 A.M. _Damn it_. I'm never going to get any sleep at this rate. I decided to hell with my pride and got up off the couch. I was fucking cold. I stomped my way down the hall angrily before stopping at Naruto's door. _Just go in damn it. You're only doing this because you're cold. _I tried to use that as my reasoning for doing this. Something in the back of my mind tugged at me and told me differently. I pushed the feeling away and opened his door slowly.

As I stepped into the room, I was a little caught off guard by the sight before me. Naruto was splayed out, taking up almost the entire bed. He was on his back and his head was facing my direction. The blanket was about halfway down his stomach revealing his chest to me. I watched it rise and fall slowly as he breathed, caught in a trance. I found that I was moving forward before I'd realized it. Standing next to the bed, I looked at Naruto. He was so peaceful when he slept. A stark contrast to when he was awake. I'd never taken the time to get a real good look at him. His hair looked touchably soft and it was golden like the sun. His face was handsome and his skin was perfectly tan. Every inch of him rippled with muscle and he was for lack of a better way of putting it…beautiful. I blushed slightly that I was looking at Naruto this way.

Sighing, I removed my shirt and I undid the rope tied around my pants and they fell quietly to the floor. I was left standing there in only my boxers. With one last draw of breath, I pulled back the covers off of Naruto and slipped into bed beside him. There was a gap between the edge of the bed and him that was just big enough for me to get into. It left me pressed up against him though. I covered us up and laid their motionless. He was so warm. It was soothing. I felt sleep overcoming me and my last thought before drifting off into sleep was, '_I could stay like this forever_.'

* * *

**Yay! Another chapter done! I hope you guys like it. It was a lot of fun to write. I'm not sure how far along this story is going to go. Leave me a review please! =)**


	4. Chapter 4: Adjusting and Realization

**Oh my, it's been a while. Sorry for the delay. I've been busy busy busy. I didn't forget about the story! I promise. Lol Again, I'm really sorry I kept you guys waiting! **

**To my reviewers:**

**SecondStarToTheRight18: Thanks bunches! I'm glad you like my story so far. ^^ I'm happy that I could make you laugh too. =D**

**Rosebunse: Amnesia huh? lol Not sure how I could fit that in at this point. I've got a few ideas I've been mulling over but feel free to suggest anything you'd like. =)**

**xRememberxMe: Oh my god! Thank you so much! =D I'm elated to know that you think my writing is good. *hugs***

**Alright! On to chapter 4! Thanks to everyone who pushed me on to continue this story. =)**

**Oh and the progress of them getting together might be a tad slow because Sasuke is an moron when it comes to emotions. lol That and I like slower build-ups rather than just BAM, they're together. Plus, it may seem like I'm bashing Sakura but I'm not. The chapters in Sasuke's POV portray how he'd probably think of her. I personally find Sakura to actually be likeable now that she's trained with Tsunade. =3 She's not as useless of a character as she used to be.**

**Standard disclaimers apply.**

****Warning! Mature content in this chapter!****

* * *

**In The End**

Chapter 4: Adjusting and Realization  
*(Sasuke POV)*

I awoke the next morning feeling significantly more comfortable than I normally would have. This would have occurred to me as unusual had I not still been in a sleep induced state. I grumbled lightly and shifted my weight a little to get more comfortable. "Mmm…warm," I sleepily mumbled out. It was then that I noticed something after I had shifted. There was something heavy draped across my waist. Also, my pillow seemed to be awfully squishy and hot for being just a pillow. I opened my eyes, blinking the sleep out of them and trying to focus on my surroundings. What I saw was tan skin. I froze and I realized that the heavy object was Naruto's arm and that my 'pillow' was his muscular chest. _Shit! _Apparently at some point in my sleep, I'd snuggled up to the noisy blonde and he'd embraced me. We were cuddling and I couldn't help but feel as if I'd taken a blow to my manhood because I was in the 'woman's position'.

_What to do?! What to do?! What to do?! _I didn't know what I could do. Any movement would surely wake the blonde and like hell I was going to let him wake up and noticed I'd cuddled up to him while we were sleeping. It was degrading enough that I'd actually got into his bed for warmth, but this I'd never hear the end of. Bringing my hand up slowly and cautiously, I tried to move the offending appendage from my waist. This of course backfired because the moment I started moving his arm, his grip only got tighter and in turn, I was pressed firmly against him now. His hold was almost possessive, though given how insane Naruto had been over the past few days I wouldn't be surprised if he really did feel possessive of me.

"Nghmm..Sasu…warm..hmm.." I heard Naruto mumble in his sleep. Ok…either he knew I was here, or he was dreaming about me. The latter perturbed me a bit. Before I could make another attempt at escape, I saw his blue eyes groggily open up and blink a few times. He looked dazed as he drifted back into the conscious world. His expression quickly snapped from sleepy to surprised. Naruto turned his head to look down at me and blinked stupidly a few times like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. And then it was there. That crazy deranged smug fox-like grin that said "Oh, you're so caught."

"Well good morning sleepy-head. Couldn't get enough of me last night huh? Had to come in here and get some more?" he said huskily, the smug look still on his face. I could swear I saw a mischievous glint in his eyes when he said this.

"You wish Dobe. I was cold last night. It's not my fault you get grabby in your sleep," I ground out venomously. I glared at him the best I could in the predicament I was in, though I'm fairly certain I looked completely harmless as a newborn puppy given my position.

"Oh really? Hmm…I beg to differ Sasuke-poo. You just couldn't keep your hands off this fine specimen of manliness," the dobe boasted out cockily.

"I. WILL. KILL. YOU." Each word escaped my lips with determination to end the blonde's life. He was so going to pay for taunting me.

"I doubt that Sasuke dear. You couldn't kill me. You love me too much." His mischievous grin broadened at his claim.

Ok, that's it. He's going to die a very slow, very painful death. I started to thrash around trying to break myself free of his hold. Naruto's grip on me only seemed to tighten. My efforts were futile because all I'd managed to do was get myself pinned on top of the annoying blonde. He smirked at me before switching our positions. Yet again, I found Naruto lying on top of me settled in between my legs. I couldn't help but think this was a bad habit we seemed to be acquiring.

"Dobe, get off of me!" I snarled out, glaring at him. I suppose I should have accepted by now though that my glares were usually wasted on Naruto. He never seemed to get the point. Well either that or he just chose to flat out ignore them. My money is on the second one.

"Hmmm…no. I'm quite comfortable where I'm at. You look so cute from this angle Sasuke babe," he said as he nipped at the tip of my nose.

My eye twitched. "What the hell is with all the damn nick-names you moron?! Do you get off on torturing me or something?!"

He looked thoughtful for a moment before saying, "Mmm…why yes I believe I do. You have no idea how much fun you are to tease." At this, he leaned down and kissed me before deciding to get off of me and walk towards the door of his room. I was a little stunned at the sudden change in his behavior. I'm not sure why I expected anything normal out of him anyway though.

"I'm hungry. If you want breakfast come to the kitchen. You can help yourself to anything you want." With that, he smiled coyly at me and left the room.

I laid their completely dazed and confused. My eyes were still wide and twitching in anger. My hair was a total mess and my heart was beating so fast in my chest that I swear it was going to jump right out of me. _What the hell is wrong with him?! _I don't think I'll EVER understand Naruto. I think for now I'm just going to go with he's completely insane and was dropped on his head several times as a baby. Another thought popped into my head. Why the hell was I letting him get away with all of this? Anyone else I would have killed viciously if they'd even attempted to do any of that to me. It was like my brain shut down when I was around Naruto and it was infuriatingly annoying.

I sat up and put my head in my hands trying to collect myself. This was going to be hell living with him. He was so impossible to deal with. Maybe that's why Tsunade had agreed to letting him take me. She knew he'd drive me insane to the point where I couldn't plan a proper attack if my life depended on it.

Just then, my stomach growled at me signaling it wished for me to fill it. I sighed to myself and got up off the bed. I didn't feel much like putting back on my pants because they required my rope to stay up. I opted instead to root through Naruto's room in search of pants that wouldn't be considered hideous. I found a pair of black sweatpants in a dresser and put them on. They were loose on me so I pulled the drawstring tight and made to walk out the door to the kitchen.

As I walked into the small room, I noticed Naruto was eating a cup of his disgusting ramen. I'm not sure how he'd survived this long and gotten to be as healthy and strong as he was because all I've ever seen him eat is ramen. He looked up to me when I walked into the room and smiled with a mouth full of noodles. I glared at him, my nose upturned in disgust at the sight.

"Idiot. Don't smile at me like that. At least swallow your food first." I turned away from him opting to root through his fridge for something edible.

"Shut up Teme. Like I care what you think," he said through the ramen in his mouth, drawing my attention to him before slurping it up and swallowing it. I wondered how he did that without chewing it first. A normal human being would have choked. My eye twitched a little.

Turning back to the fridge I noticed that it was pretty much empty, save for a carton of what looked like to be expired milk and bottle of water. "You have nothing to eat," I stated bluntly with no tone to my voice.

"Huh?" Naruto looked up at me. "I've got plenty to eat! You're just looking in the wrong spot."

Irritated, I closed the fridge and moved to the cabinets and opened one of them up. It was stuffed with as much instant cup ramen that would fit in it. I brought my hand to my forehead massaging my temples as I sighed heavily. Naruto was going to be the death of me, I swear.

"Dobe…how can you just eat ramen all the time? It's slightly on the side of disturbing. Don't you eat real food?" I ground out in an irritated manner.

"Hey! Ramen is godly! It's the best thing in the world! And yeah, sure I eat other food but that's only when there's not ramen around or I'm stuck on a mission with a certain selection of food. Though if a fully cooked meal is presented to me, by all means I'm not going to turn it down, but my first choice will always be ramen." The blonde idiot jus t smiled goofily at me. I suppose some things never change.

"You know what? We're going to go shopping because I can't eat this gruel. I'd rather starve." I sounded a bit dramatic and selfish saying that but I don't really care at the moment. His mood seemed to perk up because now he was nodding his head vigorously at me.

"Of course! Of course! I can't expect you to eat ramen all the time. I know prissy little Uchiha has to have his 3 course meal or he might implode or something like that," he said chuckling to himself. I just glared at him.

"Just hurry up and eat so we can go." I wanted this to go as quickly as possible. The market wasn't particularly one of my favorite places and I'm sure I'd get a lot of stares from the villagers.

* * *

The trip to the market went by quickly. I knew what I wanted so it made it easy. Though everywhere we went, people seemed to either avoid us like the plague or talk in hushed tones saying things like 'traitor' or 'monster'. Naruto seemed not to notice. Either that or he just didn't care.

We arrived back at the apartment with our groceries in tote, setting them down on the counter to be put away. Naruto started to help before I swat his hand away with a wooden spoon I'd found on the counter.

"Ouch! What the hell was that for Teme?!" The Kyuubi holder yelled indignantly at me.

"You're not allowed to handle anything with the kitchen anymore. You have no organization skills and you fail at feeding yourself. So I'll be taking over it and put it into proper order." The way I said it said there was no room for argument, but this was Naruto I was dealing with.

"WHAT?! It's my kitchen! And what the hell? I can feed myself just fine thank you very much prissy pants! Who the hell do you think you are?!" The blonde was red in the face by this point and about three inches from my face to get his point across. I placed the wooden spoon to the center of his chest and pushed him back with it until he was a reasonable distance away from me again. Oddly enough, he didn't halt my action.

"I'm Sasuke Uchiha. You know who I am. Or did you go brain dead in the last 10 minutes?" I couldn't help but smirk at my jab at him. _Oh Naruto, it's so easy to get you riled up. _That's when I realized something. I liked getting him riled up. Why was it that this blonde idiot could get me to act like a human even if it's a sadistic one. I was broken from my thoughts by a firm punch to the side of my face. The force of it knocked me off balance and I fell onto the table to the right of me. That fucking hurt.

"Cocky bastard!" Naruto spat at me. I glared at him before grabbing his jacket and pulling him over to me, stopping when his face was only a few inches from mine. He stared at me wide-eyed not expecting this reaction I suppose.

"Look here Dobe, stop fucking punching me. I'm sick of it." I stared into Naruto's bright cerulean orbs and ended up lost in them. They were shockinly captivating and held something in them that I couldn't quite place. Somehow, getting close to Naruto like this was nothing out of the ordinary. It happened so often that it was common place. It didn't even upset me or bother me at all. I hated people being in my personal space, but it didn't feel awkward with Naruto. It was like he was always supposed to be there.

"Umm…Sasuke? Why are you staring at me like that?" The Dobe's voice broke through my thoughts. _Shit. _I hadn't realized I had been staring. That was a blow to my pride. Uchihas don't stare.

Snapping out of my daydreaming state, I grumbled incoherently before shoving him off of me and standing back upright. "It's nothing. Look…I'll handle the kitchen and cooking. I'd rather you not burn the whole apartment complex down because you attempted to cook and failed miserably."

"Fine. Whatever Teme," he said, crossing his arms and pouting. I couldn't help but find myself thinking he was terribly cute when he pouted. This thought disturbed me.

"You know what…I think I'm going to go for a walk." I needed to get some air. Being in this closed space with Naruto was surely affecting my brain.

"Hey! You can't leave anywhere without me. It was in Tsunade's orders as a condition of your release," he stated as if that held significance.

"Tch. Dobe. I don't need an escort. Even without my chakra, I'm still deadly and I can still get around without being found." He looked at me worryingly. "And relax. I'm not going to try to run off. That'd be stupid of me now wouldn't it? I don't know who put these seals on me and I have no way to take them off. I'm not going to go anywhere without my chakra especially if I don't know if I could get it back if I leave." I turned to walk out the door. "Oh, and don't follow me ok? I'll come back in a couple hours." With that, I left his small apartment and heading out across the roof tops.

* * *

After traveling for a short while I decided to roam through the alleys near the market. As I walked along a stark wooden fence, two familiar voices rang in my ears. Two voices I didn't much care for hearing. Sakura and Ino. They were chattering away about something on the other side of the fence. Out of pure boredom, I stood still and listened in on their conversation. I figured at some point I'd come into the conversation. I always did with these too. Maybe they could clue me in to who put the seals on me. It was a long shot though.

"Don't you think it's weird?" Ino's mid-toned voice rang out.

"What's weird?" Sakura replied simply.

"Sasuke and Naruto," The flaxen blonde stated.

"Weird doesn't even begin to describe those two," her tone sounded irritated and I'm sure she had an aggravated look on her face. "But to which 'weirdness' were you referring?"

"Well think about it. Those two are like…made for each other or something." Ino claimed as if it was common knowledge.

"What on earth are you talking about Ino?" The pink haired ninja sounded generally interested and confused at the same time.

"Ok, point one. They're ALWAYS with each other. Point two! Sasuke Acknowledges Naruto. Point three! Naruto has some obsession with Sasuke…" she seemed to trail off and I'm assuming her pause in speech was because she was staring at Sakura. "What? Why are you looking at me like that Sakura. Don't tell me you haven't noticed anything odd about those two."

"What exactly are you implying Ino?" Sakura piped in.

"Ok, seriously? Haven't you noticed the way Sasuke is with Naruto? He would never so much as look at us Sakura! Naruto has always been in his eyes. Also, Sasuke has barely said anything other than 'hn' or something insulting to us…or anyone else for that matter. Naruto gets full sentences. Naruto gets conversation. Naruto gets Sasuke's attention, his rivalry, his thoughts and his touch. Sasuke actually seems human around Naruto. It's like there's actually a person there instead of some revenge seeking nut who barely speaks more than two words unless necessary. It's like…they complement each other in every way. They've always worked so fluidly together." Ino sounded pretty serious.

I took all this info in with shock. She was right and I'm not sure that settled too well with me at the moment. I felt my chest tighten slightly and continued to listen on.

"So…are you saying that Sasuke and Naruto…love each other?" Sakura asked slowly, as if she was making sure she got it right.

"BINGO! Hit the nail right on the head!" The flaxen blonde yelled out.

Love? Was she crazy? Surely this woman had to be on crack or something. I couldn't possibly love Naruto…or vice-versa.

"Are you sure? Because they've like…tried to kill each other several times. You know that right?" Sakura said in an annoyed dead-panned tone.

"That's just how they show they care! Granted, it's a little twisted but since when has Sasuke EVER shown that much attention to anyone? Never! It just furthers my point." Ino said in a satisfactory tone.

"I don't know…I mean, I suppose it's possible," Sakura said in an unsure voice.

"Oh come on Sakura! Think about it! Naruto has declared that he'll follow Sasuke to the ends of the earth to bring him back! If that's not a proclamation of love, I don't know what is. AND…the fact that Sasuke left Naruto alive every time they encountered each other shows that Sasuke can't bring himself to kill Naruto. It all makes sense when you think about it. They love each other! Though I'm pretty sure they don't realize it," the female ninja said.

"You do have a point. With those two, it'd take nothing short of a swift blow to the head to make them realize they're in love with each other…" the pink haired annoyance said, chuckling to herself a little.

"See?! Now you're getting it! It is kind of sad though. That means Sasuke is off the market. You know…I don't think it's that he's homosexual or anything. I honestly think he's just Naruto-sexual." She laughed uncontrollably at her joke. Sakura's high pitched voice joined in the laughter.

"Guess we can only wait and see huh?" Sakura said through laughs.

Ok, I'd heard enough. I had to get away from the two deranged female ninjas quick for fear of losing my sanity. First Naruto goes all psychotic on me and now Ino and Sakura are claiming we love each other. What was happening to the world? Everyone has lost their minds.

I took off down the alley and jumped back up to the rooftops running along them heading in no place particular. I just wanted to get away. It was then that I realized where my feet had subconsciously taken me. I was on the rooftops of the Uchiha compound. A slight chill ran down my spine at the memories of this place. I decided to jump down and roam around the ghost of a once thriving compound.

Walking slowly, I came across my old house stopping in front of the main entrance with a million thoughts running through my head. This was the place that had started it all. Opening the door, which was stiff due to not being used for some time, I walked quietly inside. It was dim inside the entrance hall. I removed my shoes and walked into the main room. There was a table in the middle and I noticed something placed upon its center. Curious, I walked over until I was directly in front of the structure. There on the table was a small piece of paper with my name written on it in what appeared to be Naruto's unintelligible scrawl. I frowned and picked up the piece of paper, wondering what the hell the dobe had left there.

I opened it up and it read, "I miss you. Please come home…I need my best friend." I stood there in a stupor for a few moments. Naruto missed me? Why did he leave this note here? Did he think that I might have visited the place here and there and left the note in hopes that I'd see it? Come to think of it, that is probably right down Naruto's alley of hopeful thinking.

I was seriously confused now. I didn't know what I felt anymore. I'd accomplished what I needed to but yet, it felt like I was forgetting something. I wasn't sure what to do anymore. What should I pursue now?

Sighing in an exasperated manner, I plopped down on the floor and took to meditating. It usually helped clear my mind. Crossing my legs and resting my hands on my lap, I closed my eyes and began to collect my thoughts.

I thought about how I'd accomplished my goal, well except for the minor detail that Konoha still stood. But I was beginning to think that leaving the village be wasn't such a bad idea after all anymore. Naruto's face drifted through my mind. His golden blonde hair, his perfectly tanned skin, his bright smile and his intoxicating laugh. Wait…when had I started thinking of his laugh that way? It was like he'd dug his way under my skin and he wasn't going anywhere. He was there permanently and I wasn't sure how that made me feel. I was more confused now that I was before I started meditating.

Groaning, I got back up and came to the decision that it was time to head back to Naruto's. My head was already filled with a plethora of complications. What harm would returning there do? I didn't think it could hurt any more than it already had.

* * *

As I stepped through the doorway I immediately noticed something different about the place. It was clean. Not a thing was out of place and you could actually see all the parts of the floor that weren't covered by his meager furniture. It wasn't Naruto's style to be this clean. The Dobe had always lived sloppily and carefree. _Maybe he just didn't have a purpose in cleaning it before._ That was something to consider because I'm sure Naruto never really spent much time here.

Suddenly, there was a crashing weight tackling me to the ground. I'd been so distracted that I hadn't seen him coming.

"Sasuke! You're back!"

I glared at him. "Of course I'm back baka! I said would be didn't I? Why do you feel the need to tackle me every time you see me?!"

He just grinned broadly at me. "It's so much fun watching you prickle up like a cat or something. Your reactions are amusing."

Sighing I made to push him off of me; only he wouldn't move. "Naruto…get off of me…now," I grumbled out.

"Nuh-uh! I'm pretty comfy where I'm at thank you very much Sasu-cakes," the blonde headed moron said a small smirk playing at his lips.

My eye twitched in irritation. I was seriously considering believing that the gods hated me and my punishment was being stuck with this brash loud-mouth ninja.

"Naruto…get off. You're heavy and it isn't particularly pleasant."

His response of course was not to get off, but to readjust our positions so that he was yet again on top of me and in between my legs. This seemed to be a REALLY bad habit forming here.

"Oh you know you like it when I'm pressed up against you like this and that I'm in control of you," he purred out.

He wasn't wrong though. I couldn't help but feel comfortable being under Naruto. That fact confused the hell out of me. He was so warm; like a perfect summer's day. I found myself lost in his eyes again as he stared down upon me completely pleased with himself and with my reaction too I was assuming. I felt my body tingle slightly at our closeness and found that I wanted more of this contact with him. His face was only inches from mine. Before I knew what I was doing, I suddenly found myself kissing him feverishly. Realizing what I was doing, my eyes flew open and looked into completely shocked blue ones. He'd frozen in place and I found that I'd also placed my arms around his neck.

Pulling back I yelled out, "DAMNIT!" and promptly threw him off of me before scrambling up and running out of the room and into the bathroom securely locking the door behind me. My back hit the door and I slid down it, my eyes still wide in shock. _What the hell had I just done?!_ I KISSED Naruto. NARUTO! I brought my shaky hands up to my face covering it with them and replaying the scene over and over in my head. Dear god Naruto is driving me crazy. I NEVER would have done that with anyone else. What the hell was it about him? Why was it like he was a piece of me? Everything always comes so naturally around him. I don't second guess anything; it's all second nature. My thoughts raced and my breathing was ragged. I really didn't know what to do anymore.

There was a slight quiet knock on the door, pulling me from my jumbled thoughts. "Sasuke? Are you…are you ok? Can we…talk?"

"No!" I yelled through the door. "Just go away Naruto! Forget that happened!" I could feel my voice crack during that but I didn't care. I just needed to be alone right now.

There was a long pause before I heard a barely audible, "Oh…ok. Well…if you want to talk I'll be in my room. I'm going to turn in for the night." With this, I heard him make the few steps it took to get to his room and heard the door shut quietly behind him. I couldn't help but feel that his voiced had sounded dejected.

This was getting ridiculous. I tried to calm my breathing but all I accomplished was replaying the scene in my head. I brought my fingers to my lips and lightly touched the tips to them. The kiss was…like fire. That's probably the closest thing to describing it. There was the heat of a passion that ran deep in it; some connection that I couldn't put my finger on. I'd found that I thoroughly enjoyed doing it. Nothing felt wrong about it. Well, nothing felt wrong about the action per say. My head was swimming with confusion about the whys of the action though. I opted for sleep because all this thinking was just going to make my head hurt.

Getting up, I unlocked the door and left the bathroom as quietly as I could. Silently I crept along the hall and made way for the couch. There was no possible way I was going to sleep anywhere near Naruto tonight. Too many confusing and conflicting thoughts were warring within my head and I just didn't trust myself at the moment. I'll just have to suffer through a cold night on the couch. Laying down I curled up on myself and forced myself to sleep.

* * *

I woke early the next morning, being that I hadn't slept comfortably at all and my sleep certainly wasn't restful. This was maddening .Grumbling in frustration, I drug myself off the couch and stumbled groggily to the bathroom to freshen up. A shower would certainly help my current state of mind. Locking the door behind me, I unceremoniously threw off my clothes and turned on the shower. After the water had warmed, I climbed in and closed the curtain. I turned my back to the shower head and let the warm soothing water wash over my back. After a few moments, the ache in my shoulders began to relent and I found myself feeling relaxed. I let my thoughts drift to a certain annoying blonde ninja.

My heart raced a little at the thought of him. Then, Sakura and Ino's words came flooding back to me. What if I really did love Naruto? They were certainly right; I didn't spare much time to anyone else. The blonde Dobe had always held the majority of my attention. Nobody else had ever seemed worth the time. In the earlier years, I'm not sure what had drawn me to him. There was always just something about him that made me react. As he was now, he's certainly a worthy adversary and I acknowledged him. But that couldn't be all it was. There was something deeper there. I was beginning to realize that my world didn't seem right if Naruto wasn't in it in some way. He'd always been there, as long as I can remember. I think the only time he wasn't was before my clan was killed. We'd always be brothers in loneliness. He understood what it was like to be alone and I think in turn, he ended up understanding me. Perhaps that's one of the initial reasons he never gave up. I don't think he wanted me to be lost to that sea of darkness.

I growled out a frustrated noise. Who was he to change what I did anyway? What made him think he was so special that he could just waltz his way into my heart? _Damn it. _Am I really this stupid? Have I really been so caught up in my selfish revenge that I didn't even see what was right in front of me? It'd been there all along; these feelings we had. It was mindboggling thinking about how different we were but how we seemed to somehow gravitate towards each other. I guess the term 'opposites attract' was spot on about us. He was everything I wasn't. Loud, brash, un-thinking and annoying. Everything about him stood out. But there were other things. He was also loyal, kind, caring, friendly, happy, out-going and he never let anything get him down. It was amazing really. All the death and horrible things around him and Naruto never let it cloud his judgment or let it get him down. He always kept pushing forward. Even his physical features were opposite of mine. Tan skin, bright blue eyes, stockier built body and shockingly blonde hair.

I couldn't help but think back over all the times I'd seen his body nearly naked. He was perfect to be honest. If not for the nine-tails within him, I'm sure that he would have been very popular with women. Something tells me though that he's always only had eyes for me, even when he had that silly little crush on Sakura. I thought about all the times we'd kissed now and felt my body temperature rising.

As I thought about his flawless body, I noticed that a certain body part of mine had twitched to life. My eyes widened a little as I stared down at my fully erect member. Did Naruto really do this to me? We're both male…it was so…unusual. But it didn't matter what way I spun it in my head; it felt like there was nothing wrong with feeling this way about Naruto. Naruto was just…Naruto. So I chose to indulge myself.

I got some soap and lathered up my hand and grabbed myself at my base, my free arm bracing on the wall in front of me as I leaned forward a little. I began moving my hand slowly up and down my shaft lightly rubbing my thumb over the tip each time my hand reached the top. Naruto's tan body ran through my mind and I remembered what it felt like to have him on top of me, pressed flush against me. Letting out a small moan, I quickened my pace and imagined what it'd be like to have him doing this to me. That last thought was enough to send me over the edge and groaning out softly I came, my sticky hot cum shooting out and hitting the shower wall in front of me. I stood there panting for a few moments before washing away my mess on the wall.

As I came down off of my pleasure high, I realized that I wanted Naruto. I was most certainly attracted to him and there was no denying that now after what I'd just done. A small smile crept onto my face as I thought about the Dobe. He always did this to me; he always made me act human. I don't really know what I'm going to do know. I think I may just have feelings for him but I'm not entirely sure it's love. There's really only one way to find out and that's with time.

Sighing I finished up in my shower and stepped out, turning the water off. I grabbed a towel and dried my hair. It now consisted of a poofy mess and I smoothed it back down a little. Wrapping the towel around myself, I opened up the door and made my way to Naruto's room. I need clean clothes and I'd forgotten to get some before I'd gone in there.

His door was shut when I reached it. Knocking lightly, I called out, "Naruto? Are you in there?"

A short silence went by before I heard a strained "Yeah, come in."

Opening up the door, I stepped into the room. Naruto was sitting on his bed his back turned to me and he was looking out his window seemingly lost in thought.

"I need clean clothes, could I borrow some of yours? I'll get some of mine from the Uchiha compound later if you don't want me to keep borrowing yours," I said quietly.

"Huh?" He looked over at me and blinked a few times before saying, "Oh, sure. Take whatever you need. Clothes are in the dresser over there." He made a lazy hand gesture towards his dresser.

I walked over to the dresser and got out some clothes to wear and placed them down on top of it. I deliberated whether or not I should say something about the current situation. It was probably stupid…but I chose to speak.

"Look…about last night…" I started before he interrupted me.

"It's ok Sasuke. No big deal right?" His tone of voice gave it away. It was a big deal to him. I really think he wanted more and that he was hurt by my reaction to realizing I'd kissed him.

"Naruto there's…something I think I need to tell you…" Here it goes. All or nothing I suppose. My heart was racing and I almost couldn't believe I was about to walk down this tenuous path. This was so awkward for me and I'd never been through anything like this before. To be honest, I didn't even know what to do. I was kind of just winging it.

The blonde looked at me curiously saying, "What's that?" His expression was soft and a little sad. I felt a pang of guilt shoot through me as I was more than likely the reason for that sad look.

It's now or never.

"Naruto I think…I think I'm in love with you."

* * *

**Ooohh! Cliff hanger! lol Hope you guys enjoyed it! Again, sorry it took so long!**


	5. Chapter 5: Developing Bonds

**OMG! I'm alive! lol**

**Thank you for continuing reading this far! =) I know it's been quite a while since I updated, but I've been very busy lately. I hope you all enjoy this chapter. **

* * *

**In The End**

Chapter 5: Developing Bonds  
*(Naruto POV)*

"Naruto I think…I think I'm in love with you."

I stared at Sasuke in a dumbfounded manner. Did I really just hear that or was it my imagination playing tricks on me? Here he is clad in nothing but a towel and slightly wet saying he thinks he loves me. I felt that I couldn't trust my ears and that I must have heard wrong so I dumbly spluttered out, "Come again?"

The raven haired ninja just stared at me, a look of slight annoyance playing upon his face at having to repeat himself.

"Dobe…I said I think I'm in love with you…"

Oh my. This can't really be happening. I did wake up right? I remember waking up. I'm sure I'm not asleep and dreaming this whole thing. My eyes raked over his body. He really was flawless. That pearly white skin and toned muscle were just divine... OK! STOP! STOP GETTING SIDE-TRACKED BRAIN! Speech would probably be a good thing right now. So say something, anything.

"Really?" Ok…right…that was smooth. If I wasn't in such a state of shock I would have hit myself for my stupidity.

His eye twitched in irritation. "Naruto…I know words tend to fail you…a lot…but you could say something a little more elaborate than 'really'."

I kind of had the feeling he might want to punch me at this point. I can't say I really blame him. "How long…how long have you been feeling that way?" I was still having a hard time believing that this was actually happening.

Sasuke's cheeks flushed slightly. "I don't know…I haven't really thought about anything like that until yesterday. I suppose it's probably been going on longer than that. I just…didn't realize that those kind of feelings were there before." He was avoiding eye contact with me. "Anyway…I'm throwing myself out in the open here…so it'd be nice to know how you feel. I feel like a complete idiot standing here."

"Oh…um well….hang on," I looked down at my arm and pinched myself as hard as I could. I had to be sure I wasn't dreaming and this was really happening. "OW!"

"Dobe what the hell are you doing?" came Sasuke's irritated voice.

I looked up and blinked at him a few times before saying, "Huh? Oh…I had to make sure I wasn't dreaming." I would have thought he'd get that.

"I swear you're such a child sometimes." He just looked at me, a scowl adorning his features.

"Hey! I take offense to that! I'm not a child!" I glared at him and pouted a little.

"ANYWAY…I would like some kind of response as to how you, you know…feel about me. At least about how you feel about my feelings," he said, the last part almost quiet.

How did I feel about it? I'd never really explored my seemingly abundant feelings for Sasuke. I've always just figured it was friendship and a sense of family, but I can't help but feel like there was always something more there. Did I really love him? I sure as hell enjoyed teasing him and physical contact with him always made my heart race. All the times I'd kissed him lately I thought I was doing just because it gets him so flustered and it's a hilarious sight. I don't think that was all it was now that I think about it. I definitely found him attractive. As for my feelings, I'd have to say I probably did love him. He was my first real friend and the first person I was ever really close to. I can't imagine my life without him and I don't think I could have ever felt differently. It hurt so much to lose him and I felt like I had to do everything possible to get him back. I'd always had some force driving me to be close to him; to have him in my life. That had to be the explanation. I loved Sasuke Uchiha and from the looks of things, I don't think there was a point that I hadn't. Everything just clicked into place and made sense now. Nothing I did with him ever felt…wrong. The physical contact, the kisses, sharing a bed, and living with him. It all felt comfortable, like it was just meant to happen. Everything always felt right with Sasuke. I suppose with anyone else, those activities would have just been awkward and weird.

I was brought out of my thoughts by the sound of Sasuke clearing his throat. OH! I suppose he's still waiting for an answer. He's probably really frustrated with me by now, though that's not exactly a new occurrence.

"Oh…um…well to be honest Sasuke, I think I feel that way too. Honestly, I think I always have. You've always meant a lot to me and I guess it never occurred to me why…" I stated quietly, my cheeks flushing slightly at the confession.

He stared at me for a moment. "So what do we do about it? I'm not going to go gallivanting around Konoha announcing that I love you or anything. I'm pretty much walking on eggshells as it is. I don't think Tsunade would appreciate the extra attention drawn to me."

"That's true. But I…hey! Wait a minute! Are you saying that I'm not good enough for you to openly admit you're with me?!" I yelled out. How dare he be ashamed to feel that way about me! I'm Naruto freaking Uzumaki! He should be wanting to shout it from the top of Hokage Mountain!

Sasuke face-palmed and growled in frustration at my words. "That is NOT what I mean moron! And we're not together Dobe! Last I recalled a confession doesn't mean we've magically gotten together."

"Sure it's not! The great high and mighty Sasuke Uchiha can't be seen with Naruto! It'd be a shame on his family! Oh and of course we're not together! Why would I want to be with a selfish bastard like you!" I fumed out. The nerve of him!

At this point, the pale-skinned ninja was rubbing his temples with his eyes clasped shut. "I swear Naruto…I wonder how I could love someone like you. You are so god damn frustrating!"

"Well then why the hell do you love me if I'm so frustrating!?" I blurted out.

"I JUST SAID I DON'T KNOW DOBE!" He threw up his hands in frustration.

"WELL FINE! MAYBE YOU SHOULDN'T! APPARENTLY I'M NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU ANYWAY!"

He gave me this look like he was two seconds away from ripping my head off. "Naruto…I can't believe how much of an IDIOT you are," Sasuke ground out. His posture gave the hint that it was taking all his self control to keep from maiming me on the spot. "Enjoy being stupid and alone Dobe! I'm going back to the living room. Don't bother me!" With that, he stormed out of my room slamming the door behind him.

"YEAH!? WELL MAYBE I'M HAPPY THAT WAY!" I yelled after him. I could swear the sound of the side table in the living room being flipped over reverberated down the hallway.

"Teme…" I grumbled out indignantly.

For a few moments I continued to glare at the door from which he'd retreated. "AAUUGGGHH!" I threw myself down on my bed and after a moment, thrashed about berating my mattress with my limbs before burying my face in my hands. That went horrible…and totally not how I would have hoped. I was starting to find some truth in Sakura's words over the years. My mouth did always seem to get away from me. I should really start thinking before I speak.

Turning over on my bed, I stared at the door that had been rudely slammed not 5 minutes ago. My expression went from that of anger to remorse. With the adrenaline of the fight gone, I now felt upset over the outcome of his confession. Sighing, I got up and decided to take a walk. Maybe I should go see Sakura. She usually knows what to do in situations like this. All right, it's decided then. I'll go visit Sakura and maybe clear my head some.

I dressed myself to go out and opted for using my window seeing as going through the living room past a seething Sasuke probably wasn't too good of an idea. After slipping the window open, I made the leap from my window on to the nearby rooftop and began my trek to Sakura's house.

The pink haired woman didn't live far from me. My feet carried me to the place I've been many times before. I didn't even have to pay much attention to my course to get there. Jumping down in front of her, I rapped lightly on the door and waited. After a few moments I heard her light footsteps approach the door. She opened it up and smile warmly at me.

"Oh! Hey Naruto! I wasn't expecting a visit. Come in!" she said happily, stepping aside to allow me entrance.

I smiled warmly back at her. "Hi Sakura! I didn't interrupt anything did I?"

"Oh no, of course not. I was just prepping for lunch. As always, make yourself at home."

"Thanks," I said as I grinned widely at her. I walked in after her and shut the door behind me then followed her to the kitchen.

"So Naruto, what brings you here?" She asked as she went back to chopping vegetables on the counter.

An exasperated sigh breezed through my lips. "Well, it's kind of a long story."

"I've got time." Her smile always did reassure me. It was almost motherly at times.

"Heh…well, you know how Sasuke has been living with me?" Ok…that was probably a lame way to start.

"Yes, everyone is well aware of that," she giggled lightly.

"Yeah yeah…guess that was a stupid statement. Anyway, he's been well…difficult to say, at least. But..well something happened earlier that may have very well changed things forever…" My face was downcast now. I frowned slightly.

Sakura looked at me concerned. "Oh? And what was it that happened?"

"Well…Sasuke…Sasuke confessed to me this morning…that he thinks he's…well that he's in love with me," I said and rubbed my face in my hands. I can't believe I was saying this to Sakura. She's probably going to be upset. She did always love Sasuke after all.

"Really?! Oh my god! That's wonderful Naruto! Wait…you didn't screw it up did you? Did you say something stupid again?" She got a stern look on her face.

"What? Hey! What makes you think I said something stupid?!" Ok, so maybe Sakura did know me too well. I laughed a little inwardly.

One of her eyebrows quirked upward and she gave me this look like 'are you really asking me that question?'. "Naruto…I've know you since like…forever. You don't exactly think before you speak."

I crossed my arms huffily and turned my head in a fake pout. "I don't know what you're talking about." After a moment, my posture slumped and I sighed. "But yes…I did say something stupid." My expression turned sad and regretful.

"Oh Naruto, It'll be ok. These things take time." She closed the small distance between us and gave me a reassuring hug and pat on the back.

"Aren't you upset?" I asked.

She drew back and blinked at me. "Huh? Oh! You mean about Sasuke confessing to you. No, actually I'm not. To tell you the truth, I actually was kind of expecting it." She laughed lightly.

"Say what?" I blinked dumbly at her.

"Oh come on Naruto. It doesn't take a genius to notice how you two are; how you've always been. It's obvious from a bystander's viewpoint. You two are just stubborn and thick-headed and too dumb to realize you two have always loved each other." This time, she laughed heartily.

Was it really that obvious? Geez…why the hell did it take so long for us to realize it? I guess I am a blockhead. "So you don't…you don't love him anymore?"

"Well, I do but it's not in the same way as before. It's more in the way you'd love a brother now. Besides, I have someone else that I'm with now anyhow."

"You do?! Who?! And how come I didn't know about it?!" My face was contorted in a mixture of shock and confusion.

She smiled sheepishly at me. "Well, we've been kind of keeping it a secret. We wanted to test the relationship before we made it official…"

"Oh come on Sakura! That still doesn't tell me who! Spill it!" I had both of my hands on her shoulders and was about two seconds from shaking her in frustration. My eyes were wide in anticipation of her answer.

She blushed slightly. "Lee…"

"FUZZY BROWS?!" I yelled out in shock. My mouth was hanging agape and my eyes were wide as saucers. I'll have to add that to the book of not so bright things I've shouted. "Really?! How long?!"

The pink haired ninja cringed slightly at my shouting. "Geez Naruto…do you always have to shout everything?! And yes, Lee. He's wonderful really and he's done a lot of sweet things for me. We've been dating for about a month and we planned to tell everyone in about a week. I'm surprised at how well it's worked out. I was a little wary about giving him a chance but I finally caved. He really is quite the gentlemen and persistent. It's more than I can say for Sasuke."

It took a minute for everything to sink in. So Lee and Sakura are together. It was a little shocking but I guess it wasn't all that weird. I was happy for her. "Wow. Well that's great Sakura. I'm happy for you. And yeah, you deserved better than Jerkface anyway." I laughed at my own joke.

"Well thank you Naruto. I do deserve better than Sasuke. He was always a jerk to everyone and probably the biggest one to me. But you know…he's perfect for you. I don't know how, but he puts up with you." Sakura laughed and smiled cheekily at me.

"Hey!" I held my hand over my chest in mock offense. "I can't believe you'd say that! The nerve!" Then I laughed and smiled brightly at Sakura. She joined in on my laughter.

"So what are you going to do? You can't just leave things like they are," she said, a small frown adorning her face. "It just wouldn't be right if you two didn't work things out."

My face fell to an expression of sadness and regret. I really wish I hadn't lost my mind and reacted so stupidly. I don't even know why I'd reacted that way. He wasn't saying anything bad. I suppose I'm just so used to rejection that my mind twisted his words that way.

"I don't know Sakura. I was kind of hoping you could help me figure that out.."

She looked at me for a moment and then place a gentile hand on my shoulder in reassurance. "I'll help the best I can."

Sighing, I explained what had been said and how I had twisted things and over-reacted. At the end of my story, I received a skull-cracking blow to the back of my head. God DAMN she hits hard. I'm thankful she hit me with an open palm. Sometimes I forget just how strong she is.

"GAH! What was that for?!" I yelled out in a hurt tone.

"That was for being such a dumbass," she stated with a look of disappointment on her face. "I can't believe you could be so stupid. He clearly didn't mean it the way you took it!"

"Look! I know that! Geez…" I rubbed the back of my head before saying, "I just want to fix it. You know I'm not very good with words."

She closed her eyes and took a calming breath before sighing. "You're going to have to apologize to him. Explain that you reacted stupidly and that you realized that he didn't mean it that way. Beg for his forgiveness if you have to. Though, seeing as this is you two we're talking about I can see it ending in a fist fight." She had a look of exasperation on her face.

"I guess that's probably the best I can do. I don't think he really wants to talk to me right now though. Hell, I'll be surprised if he's even still at the apartment."

"I'm sure he's there moping in his usual manner. Sasuke is fairly predictable. Of course if he is gone then you would be the only one capable of finding him. You always have been," she explained.

"I guess you're right Sakura-chan," I smiled at her warmly.

"Of course I am. Now go! You need to hurry up and fix things!" the pink haired woman exclaimed as she started pushing me towards the door.

"Ok! Ok! I'm going! Thanks for your help Sakura. I appreciate it. I'll try to let you know what happens." I made my way out her front door and crouched to jump up on the nearest roof.

"You better!" she called after me as I leapt up on the rooftop.

With that, I left Sakura's place with a mission on hand. My movements were quick and precise. My steadfast resolve showing itself and pushing me forward. I began to realize that I was scared of what might happen. Sasuke had to be furious with me. I know how he works. He doesn't cool down. He broods and things just escalate and get worse. I had to fix this quick before he changed his mind and went from love to hate. I could only hope he wasn't at that state already.

As I neared my apartment, a feeling of dread set over me that I just couldn't shake. Something wasn't right. I started to worry, my heart racing and I quickened my pace. Reaching my apartment door, I immediately knew something was wrong. It was cracked slightly open and the smell of blood hit my nose. I charged in through the door almost breaking it off its hinges.

I wasn't prepared at all for the sight I was met with. Sasuke was bloody and battered on the floor breathing very heavily. He was still conscious from the looks of it and he had his sword in a death grip in his hand. The raven haired ninja looked as if he was trying to do a push up in his attempts to remove himself from the floor.

I rushed to his side. "What the hell happened here?!" I yelled out.

He panted a little and a little trail of blood slipped down his chin from his mouth. "Sneak…attack," was all he got out before he coughed up a mouth full of blood.

I hoisted him into my lap and held him close, much as I had done the first time I thought he'd died. "Who?! Who did this to you?!" I cried out in rage. I could feel the chakra build from the pit of my stomach in answer to my rage.

"I'm not sure," he rasped out. "I couldn't do much without my chakra. Only my physical abilities were available. Thankfully that kept me alive."

I was completely and utterly outraged. Who would have the gall to come into MY apartment and attack MY Sasuke?! Nobody from Konoha would be that stupid. It had to be someone from the outside.

I asked anyway. "Was it someone from the village?"

He shook his head. "They had on a Hitai-ate that I didn't recognize. He wasn't so lucky though. I managed to finish him off before he hurt anyone else…"

I could tell in his statement that the 'anyone else' meant me. He didn't want this assassin getting to me.

"Was he after you?" I asked quietly, making sure to confirm my suspicions.

"No. He came in looking for you. Said that his employer didn't like that such a powerful Jinchuuriki was possibly in line for the next Hokage." Sasuke laughed darkly before saying, "The pathetic fool thought he could come in and kill you? He couldn't even take out a Shinobi that didn't even have his chakra available to him." His eyes clenched shut in pain.

It was only then that I took notice of his wounds. He had two long slashes across his chest that were cut in pretty deep. Dark red blood pooled on his stomach from them. He also had a wound that was probably from a sword going through his shoulder. There were bruises forming all over him and his leg had a deep slash on it. My fury subsided to pure worry for the brunette in my arms.

"We have to get you to the hospital," I stated as I lifted him up. He made a grunt of protest but it was clear that he was in no position to argue, nor did he have the energy left to.

I dashed along the rooftops using chakra to boost my speed. My dad would be proud of how fast I was moving. One could say I lived up to being the Yellow Flash's son.

It didn't take long to reach the hospital traveling at the blinding speed in which I was. I hopped down to the front entrance and barged in through the doors. "I need help here!" I cried out, running over to the front desk of the emergency room. A startled nurse looked up at me and quickly called some code over the intercom. Several nurses came rushing to my side with a gurney. I placed the now unconscious Sasuke down gingerly on it. He was paler than normal and my heart clenched seeing him like that. I scrambled along with the nurses until they came to a door and one nurse stopped me from proceeding any further.

"I'm sorry Naruto sir, but you'll have to wait in the waiting room," she said quickly and simply before she turned to follow the others.

I stood there frozen and unable to react. I felt numb. It wasn't until someone bumped into me and mumbled an apology that I came out of my stupor. My feet made quick work of the path back to the waiting room. Plopping down deftly into one of the not so comfy chairs, I let out an exasperated sigh. My thoughts were frantic. He has to be ok. He just has to be. Uchihas don't die easily. SASUKE doesn't die easily. All I could do was hope and wait for nurses to come update me on what happened.

* * *

It seemed like hours had passed since I'd entered the hospital. An eternity, to say at least when you're waiting to find out if the recently discovered love of your life is going to live or die. I was leaning over my legs with my elbows resting on my knees and my head in my hands. I don't know how much more of this waiting I could take.

I saw the shadow of someone approaching on the floor in front of me. Looking up I saw the nurse that had originally stopped me at the door. I looked at her in hope, my eyes red from the tears that had fallen from them.

She looked at me sympathetically before clearing her throat and saying, "He's stable. We stitched up his wounds and gave him blood. He's lucky you were able to get him here so fast. He would have died from blood loss if not."

I breathed a heavy sigh of relief placing a hand over my chest. "Oh thank god. I was so worried. Can I see him?"

"He's sedated right now, but you can go in and see him if you want," she said as I stood. "He's in room 502. It's down the hall to the left. They can buzz you in from the nurse's station."

"Thanks. Oh, can you do me a favor? Get Sakura here. She'll be able to heal him up."

She blinked at me a few times before nodding. "I can do that. Sakura-san may be busy at the moment in one of our wings but I'll inform her. Her shift started not too long ago."

I nodded to her and began my trek to Sasuke's room. The nurse at the desk buzzed me in and it didn't take long after I'd passed through the doors to find his room. Quietly, I pushed open the door and walked in. I shut the door gently behind me before walking over to his bedside.

He was almost ghostly pale but it looked like some of his color was returning to him. The incessant beep of the heart monitor echoed in the quiet of the small room. After a few moments, I placed my hand gingerly on his forehead and caressed down the side of his face. His skin was so soft. It was surprising given that he was a hardened killer. You'd expect all his skin to be calloused at some level.

I stood there for a moment watching the slow steady rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. There were several white bandages wrapped carefully around his chest and shoulder. The stark white stood out against the pale green knit top they had placed him in. A thick wool blanket was drawn up to his mid-chest to keep him warm. I looked him over and noticed that he now had several purple and green splotchy areas on his face and neck. He'd been hit; hard. And several times at that.

I clenched my fists in outrage. I wasn't going to stop until I found out who had caused all this. I'm sick of people around me getting hurt just because I posses the nine-tailed demon. Haven't I proved enough that I can control it and that I'm not going to turn on everybody? I felt like pounding the crap out of something but I restrained myself. I was in a hospital after all and Granny Tsunade would have my hide if I went around breaking equipment in her hospital.

Calming down, I sighed and went to pull a chair over to the bed. After pulling it over to the left side of the bed that didn't have all the monitoring equipment on it, I sat down. A sudden wave of exhaustion crept over me. This certainly isn't how I'd wanted my day to go.

I stared at Sasuke. I felt guilty. He wouldn't be in this position if it weren't for me. It was then that it truly hit me that I loved him whole-heartedly. I knew he loved me too. Even after we'd had a horrible argument, he still risked his life to protect me. Everything was pushed aside when someone came along to threaten what was his. What has always been his. How could I have gone so long without realizing that he'd always loved me? Everything he did when it came to me was completely out of his nature. In all of our battles he could never bring himself to kill me. I was always spared. The same couldn't be said for anyone else that crossed his path and became the victim of his swift and deadly blade.

This man before me means everything in the world to me. I'm such an idiot for being so blind for so long. He's always been my reason for living; to keep going. I've always wanted him in my life regardless of what he's done to me or the village. My life would have no meaning without him. I mean, sure I have all of my friends and such but they just don't mean the same thing to me as he does. I really could just kick myself for being so stupid.

I heard a light knock on the door before someone walked in. I knew who it was. Her chakra pattern gave it away to me. Her step quickened until she was right next to me.

"Oh my god," she gasped as her face fell to that of worry. She pushed past me and drew the blanket down observing all of his wounds before she opened up the shirt and hovered her hands an inch from his body. The light sea-foam green glow appeared and bathed Sasuke giving his skin an almost ethereal look as Sakura worked her healing chakra into him.

I sat quietly while she worked, hoping dearly that she could heal up all his wounds. After about 30 minutes of this, she had gone over the major gashes before stopping and sighing.

The fairer ninja turned to me and said, "His wounds should heal fairly quickly now. I knitted the flesh back together. I couldn't completely heal them. The wounds were too deep. But at least now he should heal up pretty nicely in about a week's time. In 3-4 days he can go home on bed rest."

I jumped up and hugged her. I would seriously have to take her out to dinner or something . Sakura really could work wonders. "Thank you so much Sakura," I whispered into the top of her head, her vibrant pink hair tickling my nose as I breathed.

She drew me away from her and smiled for a brief moment. He face then donned a more serious expression.

"Naruto, what happened? The last time I checked you had left him alive and well at your apartment."

My features darkened and I shook my head slightly. "I don't know. I found him like this when I got home. I asked him but he didn't know who it was either. He said the Hitai-ate was one he didn't recognize and that the Shinobi's employer didn't like the fact that a Jinchuuriki was possibly in line to be the next Hokage. Sasuke had managed to kill the ninja before he got to me. They were after me Sakura. Sasuke is sitting here like this because of me…" My voice cracked a little at the last part.

Sakura firmly grabbed my shoulders and looked me dead in the eye. "No. This is not your fault Naruto. Sasuke is like this because someone out there is still filled with hate even after everything the ninja world has been through. Even after everything we've fought to change. Sasuke ended up like that because he loves you. He would die for you as he's clearly shown. Your life means more to him than his. It's obvious or he wouldn't have killed that ninja that was sent after you."

I nodded numbly in agreement. "I know Sakura…but I can't help but feel guilty. I can't lose him…not again…" I fought to hold back tears and it stung my eyes. I was never going to let anyone hurt Sasuke ever again. Too many people have drawn him away from me and I'd had enough.

With a renewed fire glowing in my eyes I proclaimed, "I won't stop until I know who sent him."

Sakura was mildly taken aback by my sudden change in mood but quickly got over it. "Now Naruto, you know you can't just go running in blindly. I understand that you want to figure out who did this but don't follow a clouded path of revenge. That'll just take you to a dark place and you could end up risking your own life. There are too many people who need you here. Sasuke needs you here."

I let out a heavy burst of breath and nodded calmly to her. "I promise I won't run into this blind. But I will find out who did this and hold him wholly responsible for his plots and actions. This is unacceptable."

"I understand. I'm assuming you came straight here after finding him. You need to go report this to Tsunade so that this whole mess can get settled. I'm sure she'll set you up to do what you need," the pink haired ninja stated to me.

"Alright, I'll go do that. Watch over him for me?"

She nodded and with that, I left for the Hokage tower.

* * *

The trip to the tower went quickly. I'd explained the whole thing to Tsunade. To say she was unhappy was an understatement. She was downright furious. She had dispatched a team to handle my apartment's clean-up immediately and told me that she would get back to me if she found anything out. The old woman had told me to go get some rest. Yeah, like I was going to be able to really sleep after everything that's happened. There's just too much to think about.

I had made my way back to the hospital after stopping to get a bite to eat real quick. I always thought better with a full stomach.

Once I had returned to Sasuke's room I noticed that is was absent of Sakura. I deduced that she had been drawn away with duties and would probably return later to check on him. She had at least placed some security at the hospital. There were several elite Shinobi disguised as hospital staff roaming the hallways. Had I not met most of them, I myself wouldn't have found anything out of the ordinary.

I had resumed my position in the chair next to him and had pulled the chair up as close as I could. I was now leaning over the bed draped over the raven-haired man lazily. I wanted to be close to him in case I fell asleep so that he'd be able to rouse me from my slumber without having to move anywhere.

I listened to the beeps of the machine and the ticks of the clock on the wall. It was rhythmic and it was systematically putting me to sleep. I found at least some peace in being close to Sasuke. My mind was able to calm some from the raging storm that had being blundering through it the past 5-6 hours. All I could do right now was wait.

I pulled a blanket from a drawer by the bed and draped it sloppily over myself resuming my previous position. Damn cold hospital rooms. I snuggled into the bit of warmth Sasuke provided and eventually started drifting off to sleep. It was pretty late. It was after midnight I believe.

Listening to Sasuke's even breathing combined with the warm blanket and other rhythmic sounds of the hospital room finally allowed sleep to claim me and I drifted off thinking about just how much I love this man sleeping peacefully under me.

* * *

**Oh my! Another chapter done! I wasn't originally going to take the plot in this direction but it all just kind of flowed out that way. I hope you all liked it. **

**I'll also note that this fic has turned out to be a lot longer than I thought it would. 1-2 more chapters I think and the story will be wrapped up.**

**Thanks again for reading! =)**


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